The Shack, written by William Young, was originally penned as a Christmas gift for his six children. He has no intention to publish it. What stands out about the success of the book is that it acheived its sales success largely by word of mouth. It is a self-published book which originally spent about $300 on marketing. As of January 2009, The Shack had over 5 million copies in print, and had been at number 1 on the New York Times best seller list for 35 weeks.It is a grassroots cultural phenomena, not a commercialized by-product.

Many evangelical leaders have been very critical of the book, and for some understandable reasons. Chuck Colson, who I have the deepest respect, wrote an article for his Breakpoint, "Stay Out Of The Shack." Albert Mohler has called the book "deeply troubling." For whatever justified concerns there are with The Shack, (I believe there are some.) I think the strongest critics of the book fail to realize that the book is filling a spiritual hole and a theological vacuum in the evangelical world.

Specifically...The Shack makes a very brave, daring, and thoughtful attempt to tackle the reality of brutal evil and unimaginable pain in the world while reconciling it with the love and unbounded joy of God. (It is a Theodicy.) To tackle this problem is certainly not new, even for a novel. What is new is that Young does it at the level where it really counts and makes the biggest difference...he takes theology and addresses it at the level of the human heart. Young has said himself that the title of the book is a metaphor for “the house you build out of your own pain.”

In fact, Young confronts the reality of evil within "religious" society itself. Look at how he portrays the childhood of Mack, the main character of the story...

Mack was born somewhere in the Midwest, a farm boy in an Irish-American family committed to calloused hands and rigorous rules. Although externally religious, his overly strict church-elder father was a closet drinker, especially when the rain didn’t come, or came too early, and most of the times between. Mack never talks much about him, but when he does his face loses emotion like a tide going out leaving dark and lifeless eyes. From the few stories Mack has told me, I know his daddy was not a fall-asleep-happy kind of alcoholic but a vicious mean beat-your wife-and then –ask-God-for-forgiveness drunk. (Pg. 9)

Look how Mack is abusively treated by his "religious" father...

It all came to a head when thirteen-year-old Mackenzie reluctantly bared his soul to a church leader during a youth revival. Overtaken by the conviction of the moment, Mack confessed in tears that he hadn’t done anything to help his mama as he witnessed, on more than one occasion, his drunken dad beat her unconscious. What Mack failed to consider was that his confessor worked and churched with his father, and by the time he got home his daddy was waiting for him on the front porch with his mama and sisters conspicuously absent. He later learned that they had been shuttled off to his Aunt May’s in order to give his father some freedom to teach his rebellious son a lesson about respect. For almost two days, tied to the big oak at the back of the house, he was beaten with a belt and Bible verses every time his dad woke from a stupor and put down his bottle. (p.8)

This background provided in the forward section of the book sets the stage where we will see one of the most imaginative portrayals of the Trinitian love of God which has been lost and greatly misunderstood by the ones who are called to be the caretakers of that proclamation and reality.

Conclusions:

1) The Shack calls us to rethink the church and a lot of religious society.

2) It is an apologetic or theodicy for a strand of evangelical Christianity. But it is an apologetic which defends God and the Christian faith but radically distances itself from the traditional church. It does so, I think, because many people are greatly turned off by the abuses and apathy of the traditional church, which some people would view as part of the problem of evil in the world.

3) I think there are theological and anthropological problems in The Shack, but in my opinion it is a book that needs to challenge the lovelessness and abuses that can go on in the church and religious institutions.