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The Shack: Special Edition (Unabridged) | 
 enlarge | Author: William P. Young
Publisher: audible.com
Category: Book
List Price: $27.99
Buy New: $11.21
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Rating:  1862 reviews
Media: Audio Download
ASIN: B001COY9K0
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Product Description
Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever. In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant "The Shack" wrestles with the timeless question, "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?" The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You'll want everyone you know to read this book!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1857 more reviews...
A Worthwhile Evening's Read November 19, 2008
The Shack (2007). Wm. Paul Young. Los Angeles, CA: Windblown Media, 248 pp.
Reviewed by Dr. Em Cummins, retired Professor of Counseling and practicing Student of Life.
This novel is a page-turner that I read in a single evening. The story line is compelling, and the author played my emotions as a concert violinist might, moving me to tears at several points throughout the book. Indeed, it was reminiscent of Robert James Waller's The Bridges of Madison County, one of the most popular books in the 20th century that swept the country in the early 1990s. Slim in substance, its appeal to the romantic imagination was surprisingly widespread as more than 50 million copies were purchased around the world. The Shack has already sold more than two million copies.
Despite the book's lack of literary merit, I applaud Mr. Young's attempt to expand the parameters of our own limited imagination regarding the nature of God and the mystery of the Trinity. It brought to light just how hidebound our narrow conception of the Divine has become, and how we have both masculinized and regimented the entire Godhead, taming it to fit our purposes. The use of masculine pronouns permeates prayers and sermons to the point where the feminine nature of our Creator is virtually nonexistent. The author invites his readers to set aside their preconceived notions about the traditional patriarchal God and imagine a God who transcends our stunted view of the Divine. Since "God is spirit" (John 4:24), we may imagine God in multifarious ways, even as the writers of scripture did, i.e., as a watchful eagle, a roaring lion, or a mother hen. God is not circumscribed by gender, and Mr. Young has expanded our appreciation for the Divine presence by presenting God as a loving black woman.
A major subtext of the novel is its focus on forgiveness as an essential ingredient to wholeness. Indeed, this emphasis alone makes the book a potential source for healing broken relationships, which was one of the author's intentions in writing it.
I commend The Shack to serious Christian readers everywhere who seek to escape the fixed boundaries of their acculturated imaginations and consider a God who transcends the finitude of human imagining.
 Loved it! November 19, 2008
Just finished The Shack...LOVED IT!! Thank you Mr. Young for your courage, boldness and servant's heart to create such a gift!! Want to grow your faith...read this book!! Will spread the word!!
 Overwhelming November 19, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Shack
This book is strictly for devout christian believers. You would have to believe in all the Grimm's Fairy Tales to believe this fable. If you're near death and desperately need something to believe in, this is the book for you.
The explanation for why the little girl died is unsatisfactory and totally confusing, especially when "Papa" says they could have prevented her death. This author lives in la-la land.
The Shack November 19, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is fairly openly a presentation of orthodox biblical, systematic theology in the form of an unorthodox, fascinating story. (As long as the readers do not stumble over the characterizations of the three persons of the Trinity, which make for stimulaing thought and conversation too!). As I was reading this story, I identified each topic and noted it on the top of each page for easy reference. The story could be used as a stimulating tool for a great small group Bible study for teens and above. Maybe a study guide will be developed in the near future.
Inspirational, thought provoking. November 19, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I absolutely loved this book. The way the book ended was unexpected, because of the way the story drew you in. Until you read the book that might not make sence. But I highly recomend you read it to see for yourselves. The book really draws out your emotions, I felt joy to the point of laughing out loud and sadness to the point of tears. The tragedy was a hard one to swallow. Because of the emotions something like this invokes you really get the idea as to how God our Father really loves us.
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