The Shack - William Paul Young

[goodreads]

Title: The Shack
Author: William Paul Young
Genre: Christian fiction
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 250
Date read: May, 2009

Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever.

I approached this book rather hesitantly. I'd heard a LOT of good things about it, how it'd changed the reader's life - but just as many readers turned around and accused it of heresy and blasphemy. However, I trust my minister not to lead me astray, so once I heard that he'd read it and approved of it, I decided to give it a try and see what the fuss was all about.

Well, as you can see from the rating, I ended up really liking it. I had difficulties putting it down, and have found myself thinking about it, ever since finishing it. I have to admit I don't see the heresy or blasphemy, and the so-called "controversy" seems a stretch as well. To me it seemed a straight-forward, if perhaps somewhat simplified, way of describing/explaining the different aspects and faces of the Christian God.

I can't go into more depth about the blasphemy/heresy accusations without including spoilers, but I'd be more than happy to discuss it with anybody who might be interested, so please do leave comments or send me a message. For now it'll suffice to say that I didn't see either, and would recommend the book to anybody without reservations.

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