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The Shack by William Paul Young


Only_

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I truly enjoyed The Shack, the Book moved me in many ways and made me think in many directions. In my opinion, the book as well as the film do a fine job at distilling all of the christian truths into a single novel. It's tremendous success cleary indicates that people are still relating to those timeless truths. Is The Shack  the definition of a modern-day gospel?

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It's success made it into a box office hit:

Mackenzie Allen Phillips's youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation. 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 his life forever.

About the author:

WM. PAUL YOUNG was born a Canadian and raised among a Stone Age tribe by his missionary parents in the highlands of former 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. He is also the author of Cross Roads and Eve.

Source: https://www.amazon.com/Shack-Wm-Paul-Young/dp/1455567612

 

What do you think?

Edited by Clockwork_Spirit
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I only watched the movie last weekend but read the book a couple of years ago. Personally i liked the film better as creating an easier understanding of the theme.

It has been amusing reading critiques and reviews by Christians who hate it because it does not fit their very narrow and literal perspective on the bible. eg "They portrayed god as female yet the bible says he is male" Others simply haven't yet accepted the true trinitarian nature of; the father, the spirit and of Christ,  who is god in hum,an form  which the film portrayed clearly and beautifully 

  To me it epitomised and captured the spirit of the new testament and of christ's messages to man  and, to use that example again, the film explained that the protagonist perceived god in forms which he was  comfortable with, and which met his need of god at the time.

  Surely even fundamentalist  biblical Christians who have read the bible  don't actually believe god is physically in masculine form,  and cant be anything else.

The only weakness of the film, which was covered in the book, and which i questioned watching the film, was the final resolution, where the protagonist uses the knowldge given by his experience to actually locate and recover his daughter's body 

 I can see why they left it out to give the ending a more open  shape, more acceptable to those who only want to see it as a vision of a man in a coma , with no  absolute reality to it..

But, for me, it reduced the power of the story, and its point. 

The author was not saying this all occurred in a coma.  He was saying it was a real experience of the hero. 

 I really liked the subtlety and open ended question about christ and the protagonist walking on water.  was it only Christs presence which gave him the faith to walk on water or was it just possible that, with enough faith, he could walk alone on water. 

This goes to the power of faith vs  the physical  and whether  faith alone can perform miracles or whether only Christs presence enables them.  

Edited by Mr Walker
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On 20/03/2018 at 6:20 AM, Mr Walker said:

I only watched the movie last weekend but read the book a couple of years ago. Personally i liked the film better as creating an easier understanding of the theme.

It has been amusing reading critiques and reviews by Christians who hate it because it does not fit their very narrow and literal perspective on the bible. eg "They portrayed god as female yet the bible says he is male" Others simply haven't yet accepted the true trinitarian nature of; the father, the spirit and of Christ,  who is god in hum,an form  which the film portrayed clearly and beautifully 

  To me it epitomised and captured the spirit of the new testament and of christ's messages to man  and, to use that example again, the film explained that the protagonist perceived god in forms which he was  comfortable with, and which met his need of god at the time.

  Surely even fundamentalist  biblical Christians who have read the bible  don't actually believe god is physically in masculine form,  and cant be anything else.

The only weakness of the film, which was covered in the book, and which i questioned watching the film, was the final resolution, where the protagonist uses the knowldge given by his experience to actually locate and recover his daughter's body 

 I can see why they left it out to give the ending a more open  shape, more acceptable to those who only want to see it as a vision of a man in a coma , with no  absolute reality to it..

But, for me, it reduced the power of the story, and its point. 

The author was not saying this all occurred in a coma.  He was saying it was a real experience of the hero. 

 I really liked the subtlety and open ended question about christ and the protagonist walking on water.  was it only Christs presence which gave him the faith to walk on water or was it just possible that, with enough faith, he could walk alone on water. 

This goes to the power of faith vs  the physical  and whether  faith alone can perform miracles or whether only Christs presence enables them.  

I think I need to purchase boxes of these books and start giving them away. If I were a Church leader with some money available, that's certainly what I would do. The Shack is core christianity in a modern setting. An absolutely fantastic book written by a humble man tackling difficult theological questions. Something people can relate to, an opportunity to reestablish a meaningful connection with God.

Edited by Clockwork_Spirit
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