A woo-ish friend gave me “The Shack” by William Young to read. Now there are only two books in my whole life that I’ve failed to finish reading: “The Shack” is the 2nd! It’s astounding that books like this
- Get the exposure they get
- Get sold at all!
It’s not badly written and has quite a lot of humour in it…God is/was a Black Woman called “Papa”; Jesus is a human and the Holy Spirit is a wraith like creature called Sarayu. The whole Catholic/Christian created myth is personified in the most cloying, sticky sentimentality I’ve encountered in a long time.
Here’s a little excerpt illustrating how slyly the woo author has incorporated science into the thinking:
Papa says:
“Does freedom mean that you are allowed to do whatever you want to do? Or we could talk about all the limiting influences in your life that actively work against your freedom. your family genetic heritage, your specific DNA, your metabolic uniqueness, the quantum stuff that is going on at a sub-atomic level where only I am the always-present observer. Or the intrusion of your soul’s sickness that inhibits and binds you, or the social influences around you, or the habits that have created synaptic bonds and pathways in your brain. And then there’s advertising, propaganda and paradigms. Inside that confluence of multifaceted inhibitors,” she sighs, “what is freedom really?”
Sound familiar Peter Grant?
On God’s cruelty and killing of people he created, he answers the question:
“I am not who you think I am, Mackenzie. I do not need to punish people for sin. Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside. It’s not my purpose to punish it; it’s my joy to cure it.”
So God has a purpose? ??? People are all ‘devoured from the inside’ by their sin? ??? He cures us? ???
Unless you want to indulge in sentimental crap, avoid this book
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