The Shack: All Bad? How was it meant to be read?

There is currently a lot of debate about this book written by William Young.  Some love it, and some look at it and would rather burn it then open a single page, for it's lack of theological depth.

Whatever side of the coin you are on, it would be beneficial to first figure out the authors intent for writing it.

A few weeks ago a friend of my wife and I went to hear William P. Young comment about his book.

He said first and foremost that his book was not intended for theological discussion, that is, it shouldn't be viewed as a theological guidebook.  He never even thought it would be published.  (This doesn't excuse any bad theology the book endorses-by the way)

The book was written for his daughter and is based around actual places that have meaning in their lives; no doubt to serve a place of reference for his daughter as she gets older - to help her relate to the message.

Young's purpose for the book then was to teach his daughter something about the character of God and our relationship with him.  It's not meant to be a supplement to systematic theology.  Therefore, if you read it like that, you are reading it incorrectly as that was not the authors intent.  In fact, read in that context, you will wholeheartedly miss the authors intent.

That being said, this book as well as any book that lies short of the Holy Spirit inspired texts in the Bible, should be read with a fine-toothed comb.  All the way from C.S. Lewis' works to this book here.  The should never be given the theological liberties that the Bible gets.

It should be mentioned though, that if you pick out a few sentences from the book, you will find sentences that make certain doctrines confusing; Doctrines about sin, and salvation.  Be cautious not to read any theological understanding into these parts, the author did not intend to provide understanding into these areas.

A person could find some small benefit in understanding God's kind and gentle side, but be careful.  I wouldn't encourage you to read this book, I think there are others that can serve the purpose much better, but if you do read it take heed to obvious errors that weren't meant to be theological statements, but can easily be interpreted as just that by an untrained Christian heart.  For example:

"I am truly human in Jesus."  ~Papa

This is Patripassian Modalistic Monarchianism at it's core (An idea that was denied by the church long ago).  No matter what Young was trying to portray in this point, God the father was not incarnated into a human being.  Only God the son did that.  In John 1 we are told that The Word (Jesus) was made flesh and that he made his dwelling among us.  In Matthew 3 Jesus is approached by the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove and God the father speaks to him from heaven showing in the least that God was not incarnate in the flesh.

There are many parts of this book that could be torn apart and analyzed but the bottom line is this:  We are told to "test everything, hold on to the good." (1 Thessalonians 5:21)  The measuring rod for this testing is the Bible.  Any other book should be compared to the Bible to make sure it lines up.  Some parts of this book do line up correctly, some parts do not.  

I personally didn't care for the book.  I didn't understand the need for such dramatic metaphors (papa the African Woman as God the Father, the Asian as the Holy Spirit...etc.).  I appreciate Young's attempt to portray certain aspects of a very close personal relationship with God.  I don't appreciate the artistic licenses he took that forced me to shake my head in doctrinal disagreement, like the one mentioned above.  

We should be careful to take this book to the shredder without hearing the author's intent, but we are also told to test everything.  If your up for the challenge, read it in that light and I pray that God would encourage you through it somehow.

[A word of caution to those passionately opposed to this book.  Your theology is also incorrect to some degree.  Be gentle and patient to teach people the right way to view a book like this one verses throwing a tantrum like a 3-year old.  God is not concerned and he doesn't require our testimonies about Himself to validate his holiness, you shouldn't be worried either.  Teach and reproach in gentleness and kindness (2 Timothy 2:24-25).]