The Shack: A tale

The following is a blurb about a book I recently read titled, The Shack. It’s a really good read, provokes and/or questions what people (Christians) believe about God. Its story is not complex or deep but rather involves a simple tale about a man telling a story about his missing daughter and a call into the woods. The fact that it is so simple is, for me, part of its charm. It brings to light and questions our preconceived ideas about who/what God is.
The Blurb:
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. In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant "The Shack" wrestles with the timeless question, "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?" The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You'll want everyone you know to read this book!
After I read the book I gave it to my Mom to read. While she enjoyed it, many members of her Sunday school class didn’t. The portrayal of God as he/she is depicted in the book goes beyond what they can open up their minds to. On the other hand, several black women I know read it and loved it. Guess why?

I’ve included some reviews that I thought summed up the book rather well:

When the imagination of a writer and the passion of a theologian cross-fertilize the result is a novel on the order of The Shack. This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress did for his. It’s that good!
Eugene Peterson, Professor Emeritus Of Spiritual Theology,Regent College, Vancouver, B.C.
If God is all powerful and full of love, why doesn’t He do something about the pain and evil in our world? This book answers that age old question with startling creativity and staggering clarity. By far one of the best books I have ever read.
James Ryle, Author Hippo in the Garden
The Shack is a one of a kind invitation to journey to the very heart of God. Through my tears and cheers, I have been indeed transformed by the tender mercy with which William Paul Young opened the veil that too often separated me from God and from myself. With every page, the complicated do’s and don’t that distort a relationship into a religion were washed away as I understood Father, Son, and Holy Ghost for the first time in my life.
Patrick M. Roddy, Emmy Award Winning Producer of ABC News
Finally! A guy-meets-god novel that has literary integrity and spiritual daring. The Shack cuts through the clichés of both religion and bad writing to reveal something compelling and beautiful about life’s integral dance with the divine. This story reads like a prayer—like the best kinds of prayer, filled with sweat and wonder and transparency and surprise. When I read it, I felt like I was fellowshipping with God. If you read one work of fiction this year, let this be it.
Mike Morrell, Zoecarnate.com

Granted it is not a book for everyone. I’m assuming that most students in this class wouldn’t find it very interesting or thought provoking. But to me, it’s simplicity and short length goes directly to the point.