William P. Young, The Shack (Newbury Park, CA: Windblown Media, 2007).

Reviewed by William D. Lollar

Over the past thirty-seven years of my journey with the Lord, I can count on one hand the number of books that I could honestly say, "Every Christian should read this!" With over 1,000 books in my library, I have chosen most of them for their theological integrity versus their ranking on the New York Times Bestseller list. If I could only own three or four books plus a Bible, I would choose The Pleasures of God (John Piper), The Pilgrim's Progress (John Bunyan), The Jesus I Never Knew (Philip Yancey), and The Shack (William P. Young).

The Shack is one of those rare books that grabs you…heart, soul, and mind. One refreshing factoid is that the author didn't actually write it for publication; in fact, it's the only book he's ever written and William Paul Young (aka "Willie" or Paul) will quickly tell anyone that it was his wife's idea. She thought it was important for him to put something in writing for his children, to explain what makes him tick. He explains on his blog,

The Shack was a story written for my six children, with no thought or intention to publish. It is as much a surprise to me as to anyone else that I am now an ‘author’. Overall, I am a very simple guy; I have one wife, six kids, two daughter-in-laws and two grandkids on the way. I work as a general manager, janitor and inside sales guy for a friend who owns a small manufacturers rep company in Milwaukie, Oregon, and I live in a small rented house in Gresham, Oregon, that Kim has made into a marvelous home. My time is spent loving the people that are a part of my life. I am not connected, or a part, or a member of, or involved inside any sort of organization or movement anywhere. The truth is that I doubt anyone would want me.

You see, he grew up in West Papua, New Guinea, as a third culture kid (we used to call them MK's) until the age of 9 or 10. Imagine being raised in a tribal culture, thinking of yourself as a member of that culture, then being uprooted and replanted in his native land of Canada, only to find yourself eventually moving to the backwoods of Oregon. [He's as mixed up culturally as my children and grandchildren will be one day.]

Young uses the genre of fiction to explain a lot of things about God that just do not fit neatly into a systematic theology book, or a PowerPoint presentation, or even a feature-length Hollywood production. You sense immediately that this writer is a trained theologian, but his amazing artistry puts words into the most profound sequences like the awe-inspiring Renaissance masters who could produce priceless treasures from blocks of stone or a simple palette of ordinary paint.

Read the endorsements of others, or preview the first twenty-three pages, or listen to an online interview of the author by Greg Albrecht or the hosts of the God Journey podcast. There's enough here to whet your appetite and convince you to trade the cost of three latte's at Starbucks for this 250-page paperback.