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"The Shack" is the publishing phenomenon of the year

There is no question that "The Shack" is the publishing phenomenon of the year. Published by a small Christian firm, it has shot to the top of best seller lists. The sub-title might be dialogues with God, as the protagonist carries on an extended conversation with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit

in an abandoned shack.

The book has received both criticism and extended praise but reading it reminded me of a long-ago book review by short story writer Harlen Ellison. He was reviewing a "Best of the Year" volume of science fiction stories. One story that had won critical acclaim was "Patron of the Arts." Although the author was a friend of his, Ellison admitted he had a blind spot with it came to the story. Although others had praised it, the story left him cold, if not frozen.

That's the same reaction I have to "The Shack." (I am ignoring any sparks of envy that might arise because author William Young has made the best seller lists and my books haven't been within light years of the top ten.) I just don't understand what all the fuss is about because the book is, at best, mediocre in writing and, as the critics charged, theologically flawed.

To have the Trinity talking at length for a hundred or so pages, The Shack should be packed with a more wisdom and insight. God is a vivacious black woman, Jesus is a carpenter with a plaid shirt and the Holy Spirit is an Asian called Sarayu. It's not the multicultural nature of the Trinity that has upset author MIchael Young's critics, but their belief that he has a theologically skewed version of Christianity.

The narrative hook of the book - besides the talking Trinity - is the shack where the conversations take place is the site where the protagonist's young daughter was brutally murdered. So although the question of evil lures readers to pick up the book, the author never really grapples with the subject. In fact, the three members of Young's Trinity sound less like Deity and more like they have degrees in the psychology of self-actualization.

At one point Mack - the book's main character - says to God, "If you couldn't take care of Missy, how can I trust you to take care of me."

God's answer is a bit evasive. "Mack, I'm so sorry. " Tears began to fall down her cheeks. "I know what a great gulf this puts between us. I know you don't understand this yet, but I am especially fond of Missy, and you too."

But if Mack, and the reader, doesn't understand it yet, it's the perfect place for an explanation of evil. Yet Young doesn't pursue the subject.

Later in the book, when Mack brings up the murder of his child again, God answers, "there are millions of reasons to allow pain and hurt and suffering rather than to eradicate them, but most of those reasons can only be understood within each persons's story."

If there are millions of reasons, perhaps the author could have shared one or two at this point in the book.

In another place, the Holy Spirit says, "...that in one instance, the good may be the presence of cancer or the loss of income - or even a life."

That's utter nonsense. It is contrary to scripture and totally idiotic. Anyone who believes that line is a moral and theological cretin.

The other, minor literary annoyances of The Shack pale to the scriptural errors. The characters - both divine and human - in the book don't say things. They reassure, interject , exclaim, etc. as they sprout their off-the-wall theology.

Ironically, in a book about evil, there is nothing said about the devil, a rather glaring omission. Christianity teaches that evil is a reality and is personified by the Devil and his demonic allies. Why Satan and demonic being are allowed to roam the Earth has been the major issue in Christianity. Possibly the best answer - as noted by many in the charismatic branch of the faith - is man has authority on the Earth, as represented by Adam when God gave him rulership. Therefore, if evil is to be conquered it must be overcome by the Body of Christ, with individual Christians using the name of Jesus and the weapons that Paul describes in Ephesians. But if they don't act, evil has the ability to run wild over the Earth.

(As an aside, even as early as 1900, many philosophers, intellectuals and writers spoke of Europe as being in a post-Christian age. The new non-Christian age brought forth Nazism and communism, two secular philosophies that killed hundreds of millions before they were buried in un-hallowed ground. The withdrawal of Christianity opens the door to evil.)

This goes along with John Wesley's statement that "God seems to be able to do very little on the Earth without his people praying." The statement makes sense if God - at least for a time - has given (almost all) authority on Earth to men, so will not move unless his people pray and stand in faith.

Even if you disagree with that theology, it is better than pretending that sometimes cancer and the lost of an innocent life is a good thing.

In one of his books C.S. Lewis grappled with "The Problem of Pain" and Christians have forever struggled with the problems of evil and suffering in the world. Christian authors - including this one - have also done their best to tackle the subject. But The Shack doesn't bring literary light or insight on the age-old question. Young's Trinity are more simply more annoying than they are profound.

After spending much of the last eight years in the frozen tundra of Virginia, native Floridian George Duncan is now the editor of the Lake Placid Journal in Lake Placid, Florida. Also a novelist, his latest book is "A Dark Orange Farewell."