I am compiling my ideas regarding the book “The Shack”. It’s been a while since I’ve read it but it keeps popping up in discussion. Many reviews seem to discredit themselves by either focusing on the creative freedoms of the story or by misrepresenting an idea in the book so I feel I must write a thorough one myself. That being said, I believe there are many dangerous things about this book. There is danger on several levels and for various reasons. I also intend to show the harm it has already done on a practical level. This is the first of many posts that will then be assembled in a logical order to best address the issues at hand.

Let’s just get this out of the way first. If you read any online review of the book The Shack then you will inevitably see someone post a negative comment about the book. Then no matter how solid the points are and no matter how clearly they are stated, inevitably someone replies in the book’s defense by saying, “It’s just a fictional novel.” The points are not rebutted. The points are not challenged. They are dismissed by this one simple statement.

But, it is just fictional novel? The Pearl by Steinbeck is just a fictional novel. Nineteen Eighty Four by Orwell is just a fictional novel. Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury is just a fictional novel. Yet no one can deny the great influence these books and many others have had on American culture and society. The arts either reflect culture or attempt to influence it. Do we as Christians look at any other book or art with such a standard? What Christian parent just hands their teenager The Catcher In The Rye by Salinger as says, “Eh, it’s just fiction”?

How is this now a valid excuse to ignore the content of a fictional novel that is speaking in the name of the Christian Godhead — especially when most of the promotions includes quotes like, “Reading The Shack has changed my life”? There is no question that this book is affecting people so the excuse that “it’s just a fictional novel” is self-defeating to the defense of the book’s own worth.

Now let’s look on a high level of how it it is effecting people. Somewhere in the vicinity of the “it’s just a novel” excuse you will also find someone defending the book by saying, “It’s just a story, not theology.” Or something similar to, “The story didn’t change my theology, it just changed how I view God.”

Let’s look at the definition of theology:

Theology: the study of religious faith, practice, and experience ; especially : the study of God and of God’s relation to the world

Based on the content of the book, the claim that “it’s just a story, not theology” is, by definition, false. When someone says, “the book changed the way they viewed God” they are, by definition, saying that the book changed their theology — not to mention their anthropology, soteriology, and their Christology. Believe it or not, we are all theologians. We all hold a view of God, a view of humanity, and a view of how they relate.

We will look into what view of God the book actually portrays is later, but one thing is for sure, The Shack is not being offered as mere fantasy or entertainment, so it cannot be placed outside of spiritual scrutiny just because it’s fiction.