Not long ago I was reading The Shack by William Young which has quickly swept through the Christian community as a bestseller. I’m not sure why or how this happens, but every once in a while a book (or series) comes along that promotes lazy doctrine and hyped-up, fundamentalist Christianity. I have to check myself every time a new book comes out because if it has universal acceptance and buzz I probably disagree with it…am I always wrong? I can think of books like Piercing the Darkness and This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti, The Left Behind Series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, and The Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkinson. Each of these books, including The Shack have been extremely influential in shaping the theology of the larger Church. Somehow when it’s fictional Christians seem more ready to apply it’s theology to their lives. This doesn’t seem like a good habit to me.

What’s Wrong With Fiction?

The problems in these books are concerned with issues like demonology, eschatology, and the health and wealth gospel, but The Shack has to do with arguably the most important doctrine in Christendom: the doctrine of the Trinity. That is why this book troubles me so much. Since Young decided to put the Trinity front and center in this book, I want to focus the attention on his trinitarian theology.

How Should We Describe the Trinity?

Recently, my professor said, ““He who tries to understand the Trinity will lose his mind. He who fails to believe in the Trinity will lose his soul.” Most theologians believe there are no illustrations that help us think of the oneness of the Trinity. Some explain the Trinity by equating it to H2O. A water molecule can be water, liquid, or gas. The molecule is one substance in three forms. The problem here is that a water molecule cannot be water, liquid, AND gas all at the same time. Others explain the Trinity by thinking of the different roles a person might have: she might be a teacher, a wife, and a mother. She is one person with three roles. However, the trinitarian God is one God in three persons and is accomplishing His three unique roles simultaneously…Father, Son, and Spirit. Still others use the example of marriage; a husband and wife are one. This is probably the closest we can come to an illustration of the Trinity, but it is still limited. For example, Jesus said, “I and my Father are one.” I may be one with my wife but I don’t always know what she is thinking. Sometimes my will conflicts with hers. We don’t always submit to one another fully. We often have selfish moments or times when communication breaks down between us. These are not problems the Trinity faces.

Those examples may be the best ones we’ve got when it comes to thinking about the Trinity but I think the best answer is, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments and untraceable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord?” (Ro 11:33-34) and “Listen Israel, The Lord your God, the Lord is One.” (De 6:4). It is actually refreshing that I love and serve a God who’s ways and thoughts are so much higher than my ways and thoughts. I can’t put God in a box or limit Him to human understanding. The uniqueness and the oneness of the Trinity among the other gods and goddesses of other world religions is probably the most compelling evidence in His favor. What human would’ve thought of this?

How Does Young Describe the Trinity?

And that brings us to the description of the Trinity in William Young’s book The Shack. The main character in the Shack is named Mack and he has an incredibly traumatic ordeal that sweeps him off his feet in the first chapters of the book. As he deals with his grief and loss he gets an invitation to meet God at the Shack which is where the traumatic event happened. When Mack arrives he is greeted at the door by Papa, a black woman who later reveals that she is God the Father. He also meets Jesus who is a somewhat clumsy Middle Eastern man with a large nose and Sarayu, a shimmery Asian woman who is presented as the Holy Spirit. They are extremely loving to one another in an anthropomorphic way that sort of creeped me out a bit. I don’t have a big problem with God being humanized as a woman since I know that God is neither man or woman, He is Spirit. However, I mostly had a problem with the Father and the Spirit being incarnated. I almost put down the book when Papa said, “I am truly human, in Jesus.” I can take a fictionalized account of the anthropomorphism of God but when that humanized figure of God the Father tries to teach doctrine that he is now human because of Jesus (as if that’s what Jesus accomplished) is taking fiction too far. This flies in the face of John 4:24 which states, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” In Young’s humanization of God, the Father becomes human, and not even a male human. He incarnates Himself as a woman human. God is Father and God is Spirit. These are attributes that can’t even be fictionalized in a woman character.

Young also tries to suggest that there is no sort of hierarchy within the Godhead. He writes, “Hierarchy would make no sense among us.” However, both the Spirit and the Son submitted to the Father but there is no indication that the Father ever submitted Himself to the Son or the Spirit. Jesus prayed in the garden, “Abba, Father! All things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will” (Mk 14:36). Here Jesus has submitted Himself to God’s will. The Bible teaches equality within marriage and in the Trinity but that there is a hierarchy when it comes to roles. God is the Father, the husband is the head of the household. Young offers no support for his theology that hierarchy makes no sense to the Trinity and that it is entirely a man-made structure (emphasis on the man-made part). 

How Serious is the Threat?

All in all, I find Young’s The Shack to be lacking serious theological truth. However, I don’t know that it will be entirely harmful to the Church. Most people will realize that God would notincarnate Himself as a woman and that Jesus is THE Incarnation of God. That incarnation didn’t make the Father and the Spirit humans. We are still to worship God in spirit and truth because He is Spirit. I don’t think people will begin looking for God to come and meet them in person in a shack of any sort. However, the danger here lies in incremental and subtle changes in people’s theology and concept of God. For that reason, I believe it is important to get these issues out in the open. The most important thing is to expose the bad habits of popular Christianity to latch onto these books that are written not by theologians or serious Christian thinkers but by people who are merely dabbling in theology. We must guard our hearts and minds against such things.

Related Post: Distinctively Christian: The Trinity

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