Created in our ImageStory is a key component of the postmodern era. William P. Young recognized this and hit a homerun with his novel, The Shack. He also picked up on another major reality of the psyche of our day, and that is relationship. People are hungry for it, starved really, that is why we have Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and unlimited texting. The postmodern person wants constant community. In The Shack, Young reveals a God that wants the same thing. A God that is just but lives, above all else, from a heart of mercy; a God who cares deeply for every single person who ever has lived, or ever will live on the earth.
This is one of the reasons that The Shack reached the New York Times Paperback Bestsellers List, and has stayed there. People want to know that they are living within a story bigger than themselves, but that they are still a valued part of that story. Tim Keller says, "The postmodern era has produced in its citizens a hunger for beauty and justice. This is not an abstract culture, but a culture of story and image."
All of us, who have grown up in the age of television, fit into this postmodern category. Story and image go hand in hand with our day. We read books, but our constant food is visual, be it YouTube, CNN, movies or sitcoms. We are a generation stimulated by vivid imagery and compelling story (even not so compelling that is why we have twenty-four hour news that runs the same fifteen minutes of "news" all twenty-four hours).
William P. Young uses both compelling story and vivid imagery within the pages of The Shack. The book begins with Mack, a middle-aged man, snowed in for the day. Mack walks outside to get the mail, slips on some ice and hits his head. He gets up from his traumatic spill to recover a mysterious letter from the mailbox. The letter reads, "Mackenzie, It's been a while. I've missed you. I'll be at the shack next weekend if you want to get together. – Papa."
Mack freaks at the letter. Papa is the name his wife affectionately calls Father God, and the shack Papa invited him to is the place he had to go in order to identify the blood-stained clothing of his missing six-year-old daughter, who was abducted from a campsite while Mack was saving one of his other children from drowning.
At first, Mack thinks the letter is some kind of sick joke, but soon decides to check the request out. He packs up and goes to the shack. It is at the shack that Mack comes face to face with the Trinity, and it is at the shack that Young provides one of the most dramatic illustrations of the Godhead ever written.
As stated earlier, our postmodern time places a high priority on interconnectivity. Jonathan Edwards once explained the "interconnectivity" that is the essence of the Trinity, "It [creation] couldn't be [created] in order to get love and adoration, since as a triune God he already had that in himself. Rather, he created a universe to spread the glory and joy he already had. He created other beings to communicate his own love and glory to them and have them communicate it back to him, so they could step into the great Dance, the circle of love and glory and joy that he already had."
This is one of the reasons that The Shack reached the New York Times Paperback Bestsellers List, and has stayed there. People want to know that they are living within a story bigger than themselves, but that they are still a valued part of that story. Tim Keller says, "The postmodern era has produced in its citizens a hunger for beauty and justice. This is not an abstract culture, but a culture of story and image."
All of us, who have grown up in the age of television, fit into this postmodern category. Story and image go hand in hand with our day. We read books, but our constant food is visual, be it YouTube, CNN, movies or sitcoms. We are a generation stimulated by vivid imagery and compelling story (even not so compelling that is why we have twenty-four hour news that runs the same fifteen minutes of "news" all twenty-four hours).
William P. Young uses both compelling story and vivid imagery within the pages of The Shack. The book begins with Mack, a middle-aged man, snowed in for the day. Mack walks outside to get the mail, slips on some ice and hits his head. He gets up from his traumatic spill to recover a mysterious letter from the mailbox. The letter reads, "Mackenzie, It's been a while. I've missed you. I'll be at the shack next weekend if you want to get together. – Papa."
Mack freaks at the letter. Papa is the name his wife affectionately calls Father God, and the shack Papa invited him to is the place he had to go in order to identify the blood-stained clothing of his missing six-year-old daughter, who was abducted from a campsite while Mack was saving one of his other children from drowning.
At first, Mack thinks the letter is some kind of sick joke, but soon decides to check the request out. He packs up and goes to the shack. It is at the shack that Mack comes face to face with the Trinity, and it is at the shack that Young provides one of the most dramatic illustrations of the Godhead ever written.
As stated earlier, our postmodern time places a high priority on interconnectivity. Jonathan Edwards once explained the "interconnectivity" that is the essence of the Trinity, "It [creation] couldn't be [created] in order to get love and adoration, since as a triune God he already had that in himself. Rather, he created a universe to spread the glory and joy he already had. He created other beings to communicate his own love and glory to them and have them communicate it back to him, so they could step into the great Dance, the circle of love and glory and joy that he already had."
Young brings this idea of God's perfect community to life in the three characters he created to represent the three members of the Trinity. Perfect unity through humble community is the theme Young carries throughout the entire work. On page 122 of The Shack, the Asian-woman, who is identified as the Holy Spirit says:
Mackenzie, we have no concept of final authority among us, only unity. We are in a circle of relationship, not a chain of command or 'great chain of being' as your ancestors termed it. What you're seeing here is relationship without any overlay of power. We don't need power over the other because we are always looking out for the best. Hierarchy would make no sense among us. Actually, this is your problem, not ours….Humans are so lost and damaged that to you it is almost incomprehensible that people could work or live together without someone being in charge….it's one reason why experiencing true relationship is so difficult for you (Jesus now speaking)…Once you have a hierarchy you need rules to protect and administer it, and then you need law and the enforcement of the rules, and you end up with some kind of chain of command or a system of order that destroys relationship rather than promotes it. You rarely see or experience relationship apart from power. Hierarchy imposes laws and rules and you end up missing the wonder of relationship that we intended for you. (pg. 122-123)
Throughout the narrative, Mack is constantly invited into their relationship. He is brought into the unity of the Trinity and finds healing. He lets go of his anger, finds peace in knowing that his daughter is with God, and understands that justice will be served not by him but by the sacrifice of Jesus. The end of the book has Mack reclaiming the lost body of his little girl. He finds closure and wholeness in God's loving embrace, trusting that he has not been appointed judge and is able to release the man who murdered his daughter in God's hands.
The Shack speaks powerfully to a generation of people touched by story, and uses story to minister to the hearts of those who have been broken by the world. Many people are running to The Shack to find a relational, loving God. One who will do anything to reach them, and spend time with them, not judge them nor condemn them for their failings. Young reveals God as knowable, tangible, and down to earth. He has brought God into the context of the present day, removing past stereotypes and replacing old ideas with new possibilities.
For Young, Papa or God the Father could not come to Mack in male form; because of Mack's past, his own abusive father caused him to be unable to find relationship with a strong, male Father. Instead, Young chose to portray the Father as a boisterous, warm, loving, African-American woman. He also wrote Jesus as a regular guy. Someone to hang with, who was totally cool with you no matter where you were at. With the Holy Spirit, he went around traditional portraits as well. Her name is Sauya, and she is an Asian-woman, who is transparent, and loves to work in the garden. A chaotic place, well at least that is how Mack perceives it, in which she sees perfect order and wholeness.
William Young definitely understands the world we now live in and the values that are important to an age of people who are spiritually hungry and who feed on any idea that might make them feel good about themselves and the world around them. That does not make them feel judged nor condemned for their life choices. The Shack provides answers to hard questions, and gives comfort to those who have doubted the goodness of God.
The postmodern generation desires a savior. That is clear from the overwhelming success books like the Twilight series, based on a noble vampire giving eternal life to a young woman he loves selflessly, even if that life is as the undead. This “savior” and others, however, are poor imitations of the real thing, and sadly, William Young’s character of God is just a caricature. The god found on the pages of The Shack is not the God of the Bible, but instead a manmade god, created in our own image; one that feels comfortable and safe, one that we can relate to and manage because Young’s god is like us.
The postmodern does not believe that there is one truth, or that anyone knows what truth is. They also do not believe that any one text carries any more weight than any other, and if it is argued that one text means a certain thing, they argue against that interpretation saying; Who are you to say this is the right interpretation?
So, when Jesus says in John 15: 9-10; “As the Father has loved Me, I have loved you. Remain in My love. If you keep my commands you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands and remain in His love,” William Young can say something contrary to Scripture and still be right because of his personal interpretation.
In The Shack, the character of Jesus directly contradicts John 15 when he says, “Once you have a hierarchy you need rules to protect and administer it, and then you need law and the enforcement of the rules, and you end up with some kind of chain of command or a system of order that destroys relationship rather than promotes it. You rarely see or experience relationship apart from power. Hierarchy imposes laws and rules and you end up missing the wonder of relationship that we intended for you.”
In the words of Shack Jesus, rules destroy community, and obedience in not necessary in a loving relationship. However, a straightforward reading of John 15 reveals Jesus as saying that obedience and love go hand in hand, that we remain in God’s love through obedience. The word for command in these verses means, “prescribed rule by which things are done.” Jesus actually tells His disciples that perfect community comes from obedience; “I have spoken these things to you so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is My command: love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love that this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you.”
According to Young, commands or hierarchy are unloving. Jesus did not mean that He kept the Father’s commands and we are to keep His commands because that would diminish relationship. But that, in and of itself contradict the actual teaching of Jesus, as well as the actions of His life.
In Jesus’ own words, there is a cause and effect, an expectation of obedience in order to reveal a heart of love.
Not only did Jesus teach that there were certain commands we are to obey, He also explained that there is a “hierarchy” within the Trinity even as the Godhead is totally one and fully equal. In John 14:28 Jesus says; If you loved Me you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am.”
Jesus over and over again proclaimed that He had not come to carry out His own will, but instead to fulfill the will of the Father. He submitted to His Father the night He was taken prisoner. He prayed to have the cup of the cross removed from Him, but surrendered His will to the Father’s will. Philippians says that Jesus was obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. “I have kept My Father’s commands and remain in His love.” Within the perfect relationship of the Trinity, Jesus obeyed His Father. This relationship is no less loving or united because of this.
The unity of the Trinity is real. There is no question they are in complete and perfect relationship, because they are one, desiring for humanity to experience the same kind of oneness, God created marriage. He gave the woman to the man to complete him, and within that relationship He placed man as the head of the wife, and Christ as the head of the man.
One point that Young makes that is quite insightful is that God does not simply want headship over us, but wants all of us. He wants to be at our center, and the modern idea of hierarchy hinders this kind of Christ centered relationship. If believers say there are levels of commitment, then they rank God as first and give Him the best of themselves, but keep back a part for the next item on their list. The idea of complete commitment in a God centered life is a strength within the postmodern paradigm concerning relationship.
That said, Young denies the distinct roles that each member of the Trinity fill, and the unique position the Father fills within that relationship. The authority of the Father is played down by Young’s character construction. Emasculating Him in the process. Which leads to the other factor and one of the largest areas that Young goes against traditional Christianity, he removes the male picture of God, replacing Father God with a female version for a time.
Now, as mentioned above God created them, male and female, in His image. Man and woman are unique in all of creation being made in the image of God. Both aspects of male and female exist in God, and together they make a whole image of God. The question arises then, is God gender neutral. Apparently, Young acknowledged that Jesus did come as a man, because that is how He portrays Him in the book, but argues that the Holy Spirit and the Father are not.
This “interpretation” of God is interesting simply because it diverges from the one given of Abba God by Jesus. In Mark 14:36, Jesus, Himself calls God, Abba or Father in Greek. He never describes the Father as a mother or in female form. Jesus was born of a woman, He had a mother, but it was God, Himself, who was His Father.
In Scripture, God is called the Father: of all rational and intelligent beings, whether angels or men, because he is their creator, preserver, guardian and protector; of spiritual beings and of all men; of Christians, as those who through Christ have been exalted to a specially close and intimate relationship with God, and who no longer dread him as a stern judge of sinners, but revere him as their reconciled and loving Father; the Father of Jesus Christ, as one whom God has united to himself in the closest bond of love and intimacy, made acquainted with his purposes, appointed to explain and carry out among men the plan of salvation, and made to share also in his own divine nature. Blue-Letter Bible.com
Young argues that Mack cannot receive love and comfort from Papa in a male form, so God came to Mack as a woman. The interesting fact that is missing from Young’s assessment and the assessment of the culture at large is that men, no matter how dysfunctional their fathers, still look for male figures to fill that role. Very few men go to an older woman for counsel. They leave their mothers at some point and become men, and men do not go back to a woman, apart from their wives, to be affirmed. They go to other men. This is a truth of nature, and one the Young seems to miss until the end, when Papa says to Mack, “Today you need a Father”.
It is when men finally find a godly Father figure, either their own father, or a coach, or a youth pastor, or an older man to mentor and shepherd them that they begin to recognize the compassion of a loving Father God.
In Young’s worldview men are unable to receive love from other men and incapable of giving love, Neanderthals, unable to love and care so women have to come in and take their place.
This view directly relates to the world and day we live in. The feminization of all culture leads postmoderns to reject the goodness and strength of men. Fathers have lost the position of wise counselors and leaders even within the walls of the Church in the postmodern culture. Now, in order for this generation to be able to relate to God, God has to be a woman, or at least has to be a woman until the man is healed enough for God to come as God.
Finally, William Young presents a picture of God, that some would simply say is an allegory, a sketch of the real thing, a symbol to point people to God. Like the King or the Prince spoken of in Pilgrims Progress or Aslan in C.S. Lewis’ Narnia, but The Shack goes further than these books dared go. Aslan is a symbol, but never presented as Jesus. God is called Lord, King, Prince in the Bible, but John Bunyon never drew a picture outside of those names.
Young moves past allegory to actual description of God. The characters in his book are portrayed as God. Given physical bodies, personality and words, presented with authority as truth, as conversations that God would have. Yet, Jesus said that He alone was the exact representation of the Father to the world. Why is that not enough for us, today? Why do people, Christians need a new kind of representation of the Father, when they have the perfect representation in Jesus?
Long ago God spoke to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways. In these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things and through whom He made the universe. He is he radiance of His glory, the exact expression of His nature, and He sustains all things by His powerful Word. Heb. 1:1-3
Many people have found a renewed interest in God through the story woven by William Young. People have found healing of deep hurts, of lost relationships, and new relationships with God, but the question that arises is this, is it the one true God that they have found or one man’s image of God.
The fictional tale of Mack’s loss and healing is not alone in the annals of Christian literature. Mack is not the first man to come face to face with God after losing his child. Job lost not one child, but ten and was utterly unable to save any one of them. The “great sadness” as Mack’s depression was described fell upon Job like a blanket of despair. He fell naked to the ground as he lost everything.
God came to Job, just as Young had Him come to Mack, but the one difference in their experience is that the Shack god was a man made creation, based on the perceptions of a writer. The God of Job is God. He came to help Job, but He also came in His full authority and power. He questioned Job asking, “Where were you when I established the earth? Tell Me if you have understanding…have you ever in your life commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place so it may size the edges of the earth and shake the wicked out of it? Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him? Let him who argues with God give an answer…Get ready to answer me like a man; would you really challenge my justice? Would you declare Me guilty to justify yourself?”
Job answered Him, “I am so insignificant. How can I answer You? I place my hand over my mouth. I have spoken once and I will not reply; twice, but now I can add nothing.”
Our postmodern generation would bring God down in order to lift themselves up, but Job realized healing when he came face to face with the one true God and humbled himself, not to some bohemian, communal experience but instead to the Holy perfection of God. God came to Job in the fullness of His glory, with authority and power, causing Job to recognize his place in the world. And in all of this, Job did not sin, and God restored, “blessing the latter part of his life more than the earlier,” because of his humility.
The Shack, if taken as a work of fiction, not a Bible study is a good read, an uplifting tale of healing. The church, however, is beginning to use it as a textbook; one to introduce their people to God. Instead of introducing them to the God of the Bible they are introducing them to the god of William Young’s imagination, which he created in our image. The only book that can introduce humanity to God is the one He wrote, the Bible.
All Scripture is God breathed and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 2Tim.3:16-17
Do not have other gods besides Me.
