BOOK REVIEW – THE SHACK
By Wm. Paul Young
This past spring I read the transforming book “The Shack” and was so impressed with it that I (among others) recommended the book to Dee Ann to be the selection for our church’s summer reading series.
I’ve read this book twice now and each time I read it I get more from it. The book is chock full of images – of the Trinity – of heaven – that it will just blow you away. The book is a work of fiction but was it Madeleine L’Engle who said that myth is a truth of a higher order (I don’t think I have that quote quite right.)
When you read the book you come away feeling: “Yes, it could be like that, God could be like that, the Holy Ghost is like Sarayu, God is like Papa in the book”. In writing this essay I started reading the book again. Deep religious questions are discussed in the book: human independence, good and evil, the garden of one’s soul (a living fractal).
Ultimately this book is about forgiveness – forgiveness not easily said but said enough times through gritted teeth – that it comes about: forgiveness of God, of one’s abusive father, of your child’s murderer, of one’s self – of whatever it is that is keeping you from reaching your God given potential.
If you haven’t read this book, read it. If you have read it – read it again. And may the fractal be with you.
Love,
Kathy Swenson