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Tuesday, January 29, 2008
The Shack
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’ve never used this blog to put forward my own religious beliefs, and I won’t start now, but I’d like to tell you about an interesting event happening Wednesday that happens to be about a Christian book.
“The Shack” is one of those word-of-mouth books that gets passed around a lot, friend to friend. It’s a self-published novel by a guy you never heard of, William P. Young. With no media push, just word of mouth, it’s sold more than 200,000 copies. It’s been hovering around No. 120 on Amazon.com’s best-seller list, which is pretty amazing, and of the 118 user reviews there, 108 of them are five-star.
“The Shack” is a novel about a regular guy, Mackenzie Phillips, whose young daughter is abducted on a camping trip and never seen again. Several years later, he’s soldiering on, but still prone to depression, when he gets a written note from God asking Mack to come to the shack where his daughter disappeared to have a talk with God. And Jesus and the Holy Spirit show up as well.
To very traditional Christians, Young’s view is going to seem pretty radical. To non-Christians, it may not mean anything. But to some people, it’s a book that could make them see life and their relationship to God in a new way. I’m not endorsing Young’s vision, just acknowledging it could be powerful.
A guy I know and wrote a feature story about last year, Joe Kissack, has brought Young to Atlanta to talk about the book, and it sounds like it’s going to be a bigger-than-usual author appearance. Kissack, who tends to be enthusiastic, thinks hundreds may turn out because the buzz is so strong in local churches and on Christian radio.
Young will talk about “The Shack” at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 30, at the Westminster School’s Junior High Multipurpose Room, 1424 W. Paces Ferry Rd.
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