The Shack Harry Potter7

Product Description

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!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
"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 Spirit for the first time in my life. --Patrick M. Roddy, ABC News Emmy Award winning producer

Finally! A guy-meets-God Novel that has literary integrity and spiritual daring. "The Shack" cuts through the cliches 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 kind 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

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.

About the Author
William P. Young was born a Canadian and raised among a stone-age tribe by his missionary parents in the highlands of what was New Guinea. He suffered great loss as a child and young adult, and now enjoys the 'wastefulness of grace' with his family in the Pacific Northwest.

From AudioFile
Mac is a grief-stricken father in mid-life about to have an extraordinary experience with God. His great sadness began four years ago on a weekend camping trip, when his 6-year-old daughter, Missy, was murdered. What he couldn't know then, but is about to learn, was God's purpose for Missy's death. Roger Mueller's clear, gentle voice characterizes Mac's family with high-spirited joy and laughter. His portrayal of Missy's animated excitement makes her especially believable. His polished performance of grief-stricken Mac brings tears. With empathy and sensitivity, Mueller captures the mysterious voices of those who have invited him to the now abandoned, yet transformed, cabin in the wilderness. This compelling fantasy explores themes of love, loss, and blame. G.D.W. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

Know its limitations and look for more than "experiences"
I will probably update these brief comments later...

Pluses:

I think it does a good job bringing the point in that God is a "Person" and that His ablity to relate to people is based upon the fact of the Trinity itself. This point alone can be beneficial in apologetics of the God of the Bible vs. other gods.

That God is "deeper than rules" is related to this and I think is brought forth in a thought provoking manner.

Suffering and injustice being seen from a perspective outside of our temporal vision is another big plus.

Minuses:

The book leans too much on having a "relationship" with God as if we as fallen humans can just somehow learn to "stop and listen to the Holy Spirit" at any time. Only One did and His doing so perfectly all of His Life is the basis of any hope we have of a "relationship" with God. As fallen beings are not able to hear so clearly and there is no mention of using the Bible as a guide to those issues of morality that we often get murky on and need to be challanged about.

No real need for the Community of the Saints is mentioned especially about such things as Historic Christianity hammered out to separate itself from cultish belief systems (yes, the creeds of old which some consider to be a "religious, dirty, thing"). Kind of a "you hear from the Christian God and I'll hear from the Christian God" and we should just be able to get along fine.


I would recommend the Lutheran work of fiction, "The Hammer of God" as an illustration as to why holding to doctrinal beliefs can be important.

Oh, Please
At the risk of sounding sensationalistic, I would like to have returned to me the hours of my life I spent reading this book. I will give the author two stars for creativity. However, the rest of the book can best be described as . . . unusual. If you are a person with strong Christian beliefs you may find this book offensive. In The Shack, God the Father is a stereotypical large woman, the Holy Spirit is a fairy flying around the room, etc. Perhaps for some individuals, this comes across as a well written book. To me it seemed contrived.

The Shack, brings the trinity and God's purpose of life to heart
The first three chapters are startling, horrific and make you more appreciative of your own life, and those you love. The solution of getting over a dead kidnapped child? Only God can heal, and the pain will still be there. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit come alive in real compassionate and wise characters, giving the griever a chance to see life from the infinite source and a larger perspective. The Shack