Has anyone here read it?
I know, it's been bestselling for a couple years now, but I finally got around to reading it. Despite my evangelical bent, I've never had much time for this kind of book. (And the reviews that compared it to Bunyan's
Pilgrim's Progress just made me even more skeptical and less inclined to read a book about a guy who spends a weekend in a mountain shack talking with with God in person. After all, I have tried to read Bunyan several times and never got very far.) But
The Shack was my reading group's book this month, and I couldn't avoid it any longer.
Boy was I surprised. I
REALLY liked it. And I loved the way he portrayed the Trinity -- God the Father (called Papa in the story by everyone including Jesus and the Holy Spirit) being present as an African-American woman was inspired! (Probably because the Trinity idea is one of the parts of Christian theology I've never been able to get myself all the way around; and I think he managed to do so in a way that was both sophisticated and not to simplistic. And, I thought he did as good a job as I've seen of explaining the ins and out of Jesus-as-human.
So, what I'm wondering. Has anyone else read it, talked about it in Church, been offended/disturbed/annoyed by it, whatever? And if so, what did you think?
Personally I'd recommend it to anyone, Christian or otherwise.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Romans 12:2 (NKJV)