By Marcy Stenstrom
A recent popular best selling book is a novel called “The Shack” by Wm. Paul Young. The main character, Mack receives an invitation from God to a meeting with the trinity after a horrific tragedy occurs. I found myself entranced by the story as it made me cry and share in the pain as I could only imagine a horrible tragedy happening to someone I love. I felt so deeply absorbed in it that I began to think that the theology presented in the fiction was true. However, my sixth-sense Catholicism kicked in and I knew that the philosophies addressed in the conversations within the novel were not true to the Bible or the Holy Trinity.
Uniquely written, the author interjects himself as storyteller, third person narrative. Further research of the author (his website and blog can be found at theshackbook.com) reveals that he was a child victim of abuse and struggled with the very same life questions and God revelations as his main character, Mack. The book deals with many things we have all asked of God, “Why me?” or “Why my family, friend, etc.?” or “How could you let this happen?!". I think we all face these questions at some point in our lives. Some of us go through earthly emotions but maintain our relationship with God. Others may have a weaker relationship, like the characters and author of this book, and may sit and suffer in this pain for years or a lifetime. This is essentially the theme of the novel: relationships and giving up one’s concept of the right for independence and becoming dependent on God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit as the only thing that will console us now and save our souls in death. As practicing Catholics I think that we all believe these fundamentals of Christ’s love and God’s plan for us. These concepts are also found in "The Shack". But Young fails to reveal the truth in Jesus and the rich history of the Church. Through three major faith discrepancies found in the novel, I am revealing why this book is indeed fiction and how we should not be led astray by philosophies of the author pressed upon us through his marketing of this book.
The first narrative that concerned me was one of Mack’s confrontations with Young’s Jesus in chapter 10. On page 149, Jesus says that “like love, submission is not something that you can do, especially not on you own.” Mack responds by saying that we can’t just ask, “What would Jesus do?". Young’s Jesus responds to this by saying “Good intentions, bad idea….My life was not meant to be an example to copy. Being my follower is not trying to ‘be like Jesus’….”
The "Catechism of the Catholic Church" states in 520, “In all of his life Jesus presents himself as our model. He is 'the perfect man,' who invites us to become his disciples and follow him. In humbling himself, he has given us an example to imitate, through his prayer he draws us to pray, and by his poverty he calls us to accept freely the privation and persecutions that may come our way.”
The second problem is Young’s Jesus telling Mack about his bride the Church but not accepting the full concept of Church as it was created by Peter according to (the real) Jesus after his death and resurrection. In chapter 12, Young’s Jesus talks about Church as the people, the community but dismisses tradition and religion as something man-made. Young’s Jesus tells Mack, “you’re only seeing the institution, a man-made system. That’s not what I came to build. What I see are people and their lives, a living breathing community of all those who love me, not buildings and programs.” (Young, p.178)
He further explains on page 179 that he’s “not too big on religion…and not very fond of politics or economics either. And why should I be? They are the man created trinity of terrors that ravages the earth and deceives those I care about. What mental turmoil and anxiety does any human face that is not related to one of these?... Put simply, these terrors are tools that many use to prop up their illusions of security and control. People are afraid of uncertainty, afraid of the future. These institutions, these structures and ideologies are all a vain effort to create some sense of certainty and security where there isn’t any. It’s all false! Systems cannot provide you security, only I can.”
The CCC 1180 says, “When exercise of religious liberty is not thwarted, Christians construct buildings for divine worship. These visible churches are not simply gathering places but signify and make visible the Church living in this place, the dwelling of God with men reconciled and united in Christ.” And CCC 771 says, “The one mediator, Christ, established and ever sustains here on earth his holy Church, the community of faith, hope and charity, as a visible organization through which he communicates truth and grace to all men. The Church is at the same time: a ‘society structured with hierarchical organs and the mystical body of Christ; the visible society and the spiritual community; the earthly Church and the Church endowed with heavenly riches.”
Near the end of the novel the author chose to oversimplify and perhaps even brush off the true reality of Christ’s last supper. In Chapter 17, Mack’s last meal is a glass of wine and a fresh baked loaf of bread that is shared. However, Young chooses to dismiss tradition and implies that the bread and wine are merely symbols of the departure from the divine presence on earth. “Without ritual, without ceremony, they savored the warm bread and shared the wine and laughed about the stranger moments of the weekend.” (Young p.236)
The CCC 1380 says, “It is highly fitting that Christ should have wanted to remain present to his Church in this unique way. Since Christ was about to take his departure from his own visible form, he wanted to give us his sacramental presence; since he was about to offer himself on the cross to save us, he wanted us to have the memorial of the love with which he loved us 'to the end', even to the giving of his life. In his Eucharistic presence he remains mysteriously in our midst as the one who loved us and gave himself up for us, and he remains under signs that express and communicate his love:”
I think for some, the book may be an opening of a door or a new revelation, an invitation to come back to the trinity as an example of forgiveness and nailing our own despair and control issues to the cross. But the whole truth of Christ is clouded by this simplicity. If we are truly giving up our independence, and relying truly upon Christ as the book suggests, then we would seek the community and Christ physically to remind us and guide us to a fuller understanding of him. I know that if I didn’t go to mass, it would be much easier to forget about my guilt and push these things deeper into the recesses of my mind that hold me accountable for my life choices. I view weekly mass as a constant reminder of the way God intended our lives to be and pray to receive the real body of Christ as an inner cleansing to reach the parts I can't. Every week, if I prepare my heart, mind, and soul for Jesus, I accept him into my own body not only because he told me to but because I need this mystery of his power to give me strength to continue my life’s goal towards him.
Choose carefully to read this novel or when purchasing it for a gift. Everyone should understand that in it’s simplicity it extends a welcome to faith and prayer but we should not forget religion, the Church and the salvation offered not just in the heavenly Jesus but in his real body and blood living in us today.