Introduction
The Shack is a novel by American writer Paul Young that quickly gained popularity worldwide. Initially written for the author’s children, the book became a huge bestseller, selling one million copies in 2008. Along with the great popularity, The Shack also received a lot of criticism. Pastor Mark Driscoll stated that the work distorts the image of God, and evangelical author Chuck Colson advised people to steer clear of the book due to the author’s limited view of Scripture. This review presents an analysis of the images of the Holy Trinity through the eyes of Paul Young, their correspondence to biblical doctrines, and the influence of a literary work on the creation of a correct idea of God.
Summary
The storyline of The Shack is part of a narrative tradition that explores the problem of evil in the mortal world. The main character, Mackenzie Allen Philips, also known as Mack, is grieving the loss of his young daughter. The brutal abduction and murder of his beloved Missy negatively affects the mental state of the hero and his belief in the justice of God, who allowed such evil to befall an innocent girl.
Having found a mysterious message in his mailbox, Mack goes to the shack where his daughter’s body was found to have a private conversation with God and find answers to tormenting questions. In the shack, Mack meets with the divine manifestation of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Trinity in the book differs significantly from its biblical representation, which complicates the character’s perception of religion. The plot is based mainly on dialogues that open the hero’s eyes to the world.
At the end of the story, the main character comes to humility, forgiveness, and peace. He accepts his daughter’s death, takes steps towards sincere forgiveness of her killer, and becomes ready to restore deep ties with the family left on earth. All this is a consequence of the conversations with the Holy Trinity, which, according to the plot, restored Mack’s faith in God and gave him knowledge of His motives.
Critical Analysis of the Trinitarian Theology
One of the main themes of The Shack is the experience of the personal tragedy of the protagonist and his grief for his murdered daughter. At the beginning of the book, Mack is in a deep depression, which drastically affects his relationships with the other children. After spending time in the shack, Mack begins to heal from his trauma. He learns to vent emotions, put aside depression, and start living anew for himself and his children.
This theme is the basis of the book and serves as the primary motivator driving the character to make further changes. Nevertheless, Mack finds happiness through the Holy Trinity, and this biblical theme should be given more attention when revealing The Shack as an explanation of God’s nature.
The essence and motives of God seem doubtful to Mack after his traumatic experience. Trying to find answers to questions about the nature of the Holy Trinity, the character becomes a hostage to false ideas. He believes that God is vindictive and cruel, and Missy’s death is a kind of revenge for the misdeeds that he committed in the past.
However, his understanding collapses when he meets benevolent and merciful images of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Holy Trinity helps him find answers to his questions about justice, judgment, and sorrow. It generally corresponds to the concept and spirit of Trinitarianism, the tendencies of which were already revealed in the Old Testament. The theme of the nature of God becomes the primary focus in the context of the biblical representation of the Holy Trinity in fiction, although it faces considerable criticism.
God the Father in the Context of Theological Tradition
It can be said that the book’s theology contradicts the Bible’s teachings on the character and nature of the Holy Trinity. In Yang’s book, God the Father is depicted as a benevolent saint who does not bear condemnation for sin and has no expectations for his followers. Papa’s attitude is revealed as love for all living things, his children, the whole world, and not just believers. It has an obvious universalist implication: the belief in the ability to save all people. In this book, the image of God is reduced to a kind of place for consolation, which finds a sufficient emotional response from readers unfamiliar with the Bible.
This image of God presented cannot be called fundamentally wrong. In the biblical-theological movement, the static concept of God has been replaced by a dynamic perspective in which God is perceived as a person who loves and creates history. This was reflected in the book, as Papa was equally worried about all his children, not dividing them into sinful and non-sinful. Nevertheless, God’s helplessness in the face of sin does not align with traditional biblical doctrines.
The revealed manifestations of universalism lead to the violation and subsequent denial of the fundamental doctrines of the Scriptures. Sincere and pure devotion to God does not come from the heart but from thought, which regulates the understanding of Jesus and makes it possible to remain faithful to him. Yang demonstrates the character of God as a follower of Mack, his assistant, and protector.
Following the book’s logic, the Trinity obeys the human Word, which contradicts the fundamental doctrine of biblical submission to God. A person cannot dictate conditions to God and must answer for his actions and sins. Revealing the essence of God, evangelists strive to remain as faithful as possible to the conceptual framework and vocabulary of the Scriptures, thereby ensuring the authenticity of the doctrine transmission. The author of The Shack denies this necessity, portraying God as a faithful friend and partner who is essential for providing guidance and consolation during times of grief.
In the context of orthodoxy, specifically the relationship between the image of God and the Cappadocian or Augustinian theology of the Trinity, the book’s heroes are more aligned with Western orthodoxy. Initially, Young confidently drew on the Western theological concept of the Trinity, where the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are forms of the same divine essence.
The book repeatedly emphasizes the close relationship between all three images and their equality before Mack. This directly corresponds to Western ideology, highlighting equality between all three forms. If the book corresponded to eastern theology, God the Father would be perceived as the source of the divinity of the other two personalities. Without a clear hierarchy, the book depicts more Augustinian tendencies.
Trinitarian Theological Taxis and Model of the Trinity
The above points to Yang’s linear adherence to the traditional theological taxis. The author does not put God the Son above God the Father or the Holy Spirit above the Son. Nevertheless, despite the book’s general rhetoric and the desire to promote equality among the three manifestations of God, Papa remains a more significant and trusted figure for the protagonist. Mack’s behavior can be called relatively calm regarding God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, but he is to some extent cold and aggressive towards God the Father. Mack believes Him to be responsible for Missy’s death, and it is God the Father who becomes the last resort on the path to redemption.
Like all people, Mack has a certain understanding of “justice.” By his actions, the character implies that he can judge Papa. However, his approach implies that there are certain values above God, when in fact, there is nothing above God. Thus, if Young’s original idea opposed classical theological taxis, this concept has not been successfully depicted throughout the story. During the storyline development, the understanding of the Trinity is reduced to traditional theological taxis.
Yang’s model of relations in the Holy Trinity is far from the classical hierarchical traditions. In the context of their relationship with Mack, the reader identifies a clear difference between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The reader sees the importance of God the Father in the story, but does not perceive Him as an obvious patron. The book emphasizes that all three manifestations of the Holy Trinity are Gods equally, which presents an opportunity to build a social model.
As a term, social Trinitarianism posits that the Trinity possesses a common divine essence, and all forms are individualized solely by their relationships to one another. It was initially used to explain the Trinity with an emphasis on the personal triadic relationship of God, rather than a substantial unity. The universalist tendencies of the book clearly indicate that, in Yang’s understanding, a person bears little responsibility for their actions and is not accountable to God for their sins. All three hypostases are parts of one whole without showing detailed submission to God the Father. Consequently, the hierarchical model becomes impossible in the story’s context and gives way to a social understanding of the Trinity.
Heresies
The book’s key message can hardly be called heretical, even though it raises many heresies to the main biblical picture. In The Shack, God is limited by His love and cannot administer justice. The murderer of Missy, despite his cruelest sin, is also perceived by God the Father as someone who deserves forgiveness. This heresy goes against the postulate that God’s love and justice are two sides of the same coin.
In other words, God has the full right to administer justice, not limited by His love and understanding of human nature. This heresy is fundamental in the storyline and explains the creation of evil. In contrast, theologically evil is defined by the existence of people who deny doctrines and religious practices. Consequently, this significantly affects the perception of God’s image and creates a false impression of His omnipotence in the ordinary reader, who is far from being familiar with the Scriptures.
On the other hand, this one can be seen as God’s desire to free Mack from the bondage of his own tragedy. He allows His followers to love others as He loves, and thanks to this, a person comes to happiness, satisfaction, and eternal delight. This correlates with the book’s central message, which turns a frightening heresy into a ridiculous inconsistency that continues to meet the fundamental doctrine.
In addition, the book’s plot is also based on the heresy of God’s acceptance of all people, regardless of their faith. God does not forgive people for unbelief and grants eternal life only to those who believe in Him; however, the book conveys a message of universal love. This is explained by Mack’s need to return to the true path of faith when he begins to doubt God’s divine justice. It also significantly influences the continuation of commitment and the possibility of attaining Heaven, even after denying biblical doctrines. The book’s main message conveys a flawed understanding of the importance of faith in human life.
The presented heresies and other inconsistencies with the Scriptures create a misleading impression of the Trinity’s role. Christianity assumes God has given man the Word through which people can know Him as He is. The New Testament was mostly written to enable people of all kinds and conditions to understand God. A confusing subtext of the book reviewed can discourage a person from having a religious beginning.
The plot focuses on paving the way for the main character to transition from sorrow and hatred to love and happiness, but the conclusion reveals God’s equal love for all people, regardless of their sins. If God is omnipotent, forgiving, and merciful, people would not desire to follow the commandments and adhere to biblical practices. Presenting the message in fiction distorts the idea of the divine essence and discourages people from joining a religion.
Young’s Modalism
The representation of God in The Shack also raises the question of seeing Yang’s modalistic model of the Holy Trinity. The question of the numerical unity of the three manifestations is a clear consequence of the logical contradictions that gave rise to modalism. To explain the essence of the Trinity in the first centuries of our era, the technical term “hypostasis” was employed, which effectively conveyed the stability of individuals and their ontological distinctiveness.
However, the book’s heroes do not seem to linger on this aspect. In this book, the images of the Trinity are endowed with different incarnations and needs that they satisfy throughout the plot. Each image is unique and serves a specific purpose, helping to reveal various aspects of Mack’s personality. The hero’s reaction to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit when he first appears in the shack is also different, which contradicts the modalistic view of the one nature of God and its antitrinitarian teachings. Thus, Young did not reveal any modalistic ideas throughout the story.
This approach results from difficulty understanding the concepts of Three-in-One and One-In-Three. This is especially evident in the issue of the unity of the Spirit and the Son, or the relationship between the divinity of the Son and the deity of the Father. Despite multiple inconsistencies with biblical traditions and doctrines, it would not be entirely correct to judge the modalistic representation of God in The Shack. The universalism of work has not become an obstacle to overcoming modalistic tendencies.
A Trinitarian Critique of The Shack
According to my trinitarian dogmatic beliefs, The Shack poorly reflects God’s nature and His basic messages to humanity. Young managed to convey the essence of the Holy Trinity as One-in-Three and Three-in-One, clearly separating the characters and endowing them with the same divine features. The concept of the Holy Trinity in the New Testament narrative, which concludes that Jesus is God and the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, is fully reflected in the work.
The author’s approach to representing God in three different hypostases generally closes the question of the possibility of God’s existence in several forms. Having a clear understanding of such a phenomenon makes the acceptance of the Trinity’s existence more understandable and commonplace for the average reader, which can positively impact their future study of the Scriptures.
Such an attitude towards the Trinity should not be blamed at the initial stage of theological study, since Trinitarianism is not limited to accepting doctrine. In other words, immersion, in theory, can begin with surrounding one’s being with the Trinity. Evangelical Christians do not need to be convinced of a trinitarian theory; they must be shown that they are immersed in a trinitarian reality.
Nevertheless, the book’s main message remains flawed and only confuses those seeking answers to pressing questions. As has already been proven, The Shack contains many heresies that contradict the biblical image of the Holy Trinity and support a false idea of God’s place in people’s lives. Universalism excludes the possibility of sin and logically concludes that everyone goes to Heaven regardless of their actions and merits during life.
The book’s theological message engages the reader by addressing complex and troubling human issues, but its answers often lead to confusion and chaos in the Bible’s theoretical framework. As a result, without a clear knowledge of the fundamental doctrines, it is difficult to recommend The Shack as a solid theological argument.
Conclusion
Thus, The Shack brings an understanding of the world’s nature of suffering, evil, and cruelty. The book can serve as a psychological aid for individuals seeking to heal from their inner wounds and past negative experiences. Understanding God and His essence can help preserve a person’s faith in religion and prevent it from faltering during difficult life stages. Finding their reflection in the hero, readers can overcome the crisis of faith and find an explanation for the existence of evil in the world without unknowingly shifting the blame to God.
Nevertheless, from a theological perspective, the book can be considered dangerous to the very existence of the Christian faith. The basic message contradicts the Bible, the Scriptures, and traditional doctrines, creating a false idea of God. Despite the psychologically positive message, The Shack strengthens people’s faith in heresies. The book cannot be perceived as a theological argument due to serious discrepancies with Biblical rhetoric.
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