The Shack, life-changing, or heresy?

I already blogged once today, but this book has caught my interest. It is called simply "The Shack". People are calling the book "life-changing", something every Christian should read. On Christianbook.com's website, there are 401 reviews for the book, far more than the usual 4 or more for the average fiction book, and 22 for popular authors like Ted Dekker. Amazon currently shows 1047 reviews. This book is the talk of Christian fiction readers. Reviews say how encouraging the book is.

I tried to find the book at the library here in town, and they didn't have it, but said they may be able to get it through some system they use if I would pay 75 cents for shipping. They hunted me up a few minutes later and said they could get it, but there were 420 people ahead of me for the book. Good grief- 420! They figure they will just order the book in to stock, and I will be first in line.

I have to admit, I really want to read this book to see what the hype is about. Among the tons of raving reviews, there are negative ones here and there. Such as this one:

Horrible theology! This is absolutely NOT a Christian book. In fact, it flies in the face of everything Christian; especially the horrific portrayal of the Trinity. I expected more from a website that calls itself Christianbook.com (William)

And this one:
Come on people. This book is not Christian in any sense of the word. This garbage directly denies that that Jesus is THE way THE truth and THE life and that no person can come to God except through the Son (Mike).


Yet you have people like Gloria Gaither using the book for her book club. Wes Hampton of the Gaither Vocal Band said how much he enjoyed the book, but that "legalistic" people would find fault with it.

The book is about a man whose young daughter is kidnapped and killed. A few years later, God takes him back to the shack where they found evidence of her. He is met by a man names Jesus, a black woman who is supposed to represent God, and an Asian woman is the Holy Spirit. This already sounds bizarre to me.

Is it possible for so many Christians to be roped in by a book that sounds like it is wrong theologically, and sounds like it leans toward New Age ideas? Or are the negative reviews and negative sites wrong about the book?

I have not read the book, but hope to soon. And when I do, I will post what I have found out. So stay tuned for "My Review of The Shack".


One site that has material against the book: http://www.carm.org/features/theshack.htm