The Shack and Other Books I Don't Have Enough Faith To Read

The book The Shack by William P. Young has become a huge bestseller in a very short amount of time. There has also been a lot of talk about this book throughout the Catholic community~some positive, some negative.
I will be honest, I have not read the book in its entirety, only bits and pieces of it. The reason I can not bring myself to read the book cover to cover is because personally, I do not feel I have enough faith to read this book as an objective Catholic; this is also the reason I stay away from books like The DaVinci Code and Angels and Demons. This post is not to tell people what they should or should not read; I leave that to each individuals good judgment.
The main reason for this post is to direct you to Fr. Robert Barron's review of this book. He gives an honest commentary on the positive and negative aspects of this book. I like the fact that he doesn't throw the baby out with the bath water. While he does recommend the book to Catholic; he puts it this way, "It's like watermelon; there is a lot of sweet stuff, but you have to spit out some seeds along the way." I love that analogy.
Who knows, maybe one day I will be able to read books like this and just spit out the seeds. In the meantime, you can head over to Word On Fire to listen to Fr. Barron's review. Click on the WOF/TV tab on the site to view Father's videos. While you are there, you can also listen to his continuing interview series with Mike Leonard and his questions to Father about the Catholic Faith.

Comments

Anne said…
I can't read the Da Vinci Code or Angels and Demons either. I also will not read "A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church" by Archbishop Weakland. Sometimes those stretches are out of my comfort zone. There are far too many good books to read than to waste our time reading questionable books that most likely won't do anything to draw us closer to God. I did read the Shack. I didn't care for it. It was ok. I was intrigued by the Holy Spirit being portrayed as an Asian woman. I did find something about that to be appealing. For the most part, I like to stick with the classics-you just can't do better than those, can you?
Anne said…
Karinann, I posted a comment yesterday but don't see it here, so I hope this isn't a duplicate. I read the Shack and didn't care for it. Just not much to it, I thought. I did like how he portrayed the Holy Spirit as an Asian woman, there was something creative and appealing about that for me. As far as the Marc Brown books, I agree with you. I have absolutely no interest in them. Another book I will never read is "Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church" by Archbishop Weakland. Why rehash heartache? With so many wonderful spiritual classics and current books out there, I am grateful that we can pick and choose. I choose books with real substance that will draw me closer to God!
Unknown said…
Thanks for your input on this ladies. Anne, your first comment probably came in after I shut down for the night~didn't see the comments for this post until today, Friday morning.
You both, along with Fr. Barron confirmed my suspicions about this book.
Karinann, I have no desire to read Da Vinci Code or Angels and Demons. Someone gave me The Shack, and I read it. It was okay. If you keep in mind that the author wrote it for his children and don't take it as a theology lesson, you'll be okay. Our human minds are so very limited when it comes to the Trinity. I did like the part where he interacted with each part of the Trinity. Everyone's journey isn't cookie cutter so... I read it more for entertainment. I probably wouldn't have chose to read it, but it was a gift from a friend.