The Shack by William Young - Essay Example

The plot of “The Shack” begins with a flashback told from Mackenzie “Mack” Phillips’ point of view. Mack is a man living an apparently ideal life – one full of happiness and contentment. However, things suddenly take a turn for the worst during a camping trip after he lets two of his older children take a canoe to the lake. Their canoe, unfortunately, tips over, getting one of them stuck underneath the waters.

Mack rushes off to rescue his son but on returning to the shore, he finds Missy, his youngest daughter, missing. The massive search that follows does not bear fruits as the girl is not found. However, the gives clues that point towards a serial offender going by the name Little Lady Killer. A few days later after his realization that Missy may never be found, Mark sinks into great sadness where his relations with the other kids, his marriage, and his overall life suffer. Four years later, Mark receives a handwritten note in his mailbox, apparently from God, asking him to go back to a shack in the woods where some of Missy’s possessions had been found.

Even though Mark experiences difficulty believing that God actually wrote him the note, he still cannot forget the whole incidence. Mark heads to the shack where he meets and spends a couple of days with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, who provide answers to his questions and reveal to him all about true faith.

In tackling issues about God and evil, Young states theological views that seem confusing about the nature of God. He criticizes the sole use of the Bible as a source of teachings liking it to a reduction of God’s voice to paper (Young, 65).

He seldom refers to the Bible choosing to focus on experience as equal or a better source of teachings than the Bible. In the few instances that he mentions the Bible, Young neither portrays it to be as authoritative as it often the case nor does he accept it as the complete Word of God. He seems to scoff at the concept that God speaks authoritatively through the Bible. The book suggests that the Trinity exists wholly and devoid of any hierarchies stating that any hierarchies result from sin (Young, 124).