The Shack by William Young has caused quite a stir, as I'm sure you know. There seem to be two camps: persons that loved it and persons that hated it. I'm more on the side of those that hate it. I don't hate it, but I did find alot to dislike. Here's a brief breakdown on the reasons I didn't like it.
1) It's not a good novel.
-Although the story is very emotional and powerful even, the execution was lacking--I thought. I found many of the characters flat and completely unbelievable (the same for parts of the dialogue). Furthermore, entire sections of the plot seemed obviously borrowed from greater works of fiction. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for borrowing from other writers, I just think it should be done more tactfully. For instance, I swear Papa is the same character as the Oracle in The Matrix. There were other (larger) borrowed elements that bothered me, but I don't have time to discuss them.
-I also felt that some of the time Young was engaging in emotional manipulation. Because your emotions are engaged, it means your brain probably isn't. This is handy when you're trying to get people to buy a sketchy position.
2) I thought it was brazenly irreverent.
-I don't know about Mr. Young, but the God I worship is actually Holy. The picture of God that Mr. Young paints is more like Santa Claus than the God of the Bible. I understand that he's trying to emphasize God's love and mercy, etc. but I felt it was done at the expense of Holiness.
-I did think that he did do a good job of clearly distinguishing between the persons of the Trinity, thus avoiding the heresy of Modalism (Modalism states that the persons are simply modes of the same being, not distinct persons). However, in doing so, Mr. Young incarnated all three persons of the Trinity--not just Jesus. Certainly, you could say, "But Young made it clear that they only appeared as a black woman, a carpenter, and an asian woman." Sure, but God never makes himself appear as something he isn't. He's not a Greek God.
3) I had to play "Insight or Heresy?" when I read it.
Young had some very insightful things to say. If you can look past all the problems with it and just pay attention to those bits, the book won't bother you as much. I was perturbed by the book, sure, but not nearly as much as other people I know. As I was reading, I tried to keep an open mind and ignore the bad bits. Fortunately, I was able to find some very good insights. Unfortunately, these good insights were always nestled amongst very unhelpful 'insights'. 'Heretical views' might be closer than 'insights'. I will temper that by saying that I did understand his reasons for most of the views I didn't agree with. He was trying to correct some misconceptions people have about God. I just think he went too far.
This article sums up my opinion pretty well. I don't necessarily agree with everything that's said, but I'd hold to most of it.
Here is an additional article which was brought to my attention. I think it makes many of my own points, but perhaps in a more balanced fashion.
Of course, you don't have to agree with me, but I think I have valid reasons to hold my opinion.
Peace.
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