Your question is a fair question. Here are my thoughts on the matter, for what they are worth:
To me, the point is to grow closer to God, not to grow closer to this or that book. Of course, everyone agrees with that, I guess.
Yet, I’ll go even further. I read in some book that it is even wrong to be very attached to Catholic Doctrines. Why? Aren’t they true? Yes. But the doctrines are not God. Doctrines are just a means that we can use (or not use) to help us get closer to God and more united in Godly respect and feelings (“agape”) to our fellow human beings.
When St. Francis of Assisi was alive, he insisted that the friars who followed him not own any books and not attend universities. Why? Because he’d observed that study became an end itself (even theological study), and often ended up leading priests and monks away from closeness with God and the People of God. In this way, St. Francis was very different from St. Dominic and the order of friars he started.
I did read “The Shack,” since I heard so much about it. To me, it is clear that the author of “The Shack” wants to lead people to be closer with God. It also clear that he has fallen into many theological heresies in his endeavor to lead people to God. His heresies seem even worse than those of Luther and Calvin.
But, God can save people and bring them into intimacy even through teachers and leaders who teach some theological heresies. The whole “orthodoxy vs. heresy” dimension is not the only dimension of true religion. Heresy is not good, but orthodoxy is not everything. There are and have been Protestants who have been great lovers of God and of the People of God. Blessed John Paul II said that many, many times. It is part of ecumenism to acknowledge that people who are technically heretics are sometimes or often nevertheless great lovers of God and the People of God, and are much beloved by God.
So, if certain characters, scenes, and concepts in “The Shack” help you get closer to God, God is certainly happy.
That’s just my opinion.
Oh, by the way, I have read that one reason “The Shack” became so well known and such a big seller is that certain secular liberal publishing bigwigs made a decision that “The Shack,” though Christian, was acceptable since “The Shack” contains so much criticism of mainstream conservative and fundamentalistic Christian churches. I’ve heard that that’s the same reason Fr. Girzone’s “Joshua” novels were such big sellers (the first of the “Joshua” novels has much criticism of the pope and bishops, and was even made into a movie by Evangelicals and broadcast on TBN).
A related question: Why are there not more Catholic novels?
When I go to Protestant/Evangelical bookstores, I find row after row of Christian fiction, in a variety of genres: romance, horror, historical, adventure, on and on.
When I go to a Catholic bookstore I find only about 4 feet of space on one shelf with a few Catholic novels.
I know that Ignatius Press publishes and sells a few Catholic novels. But I’ve never found a really good Catholic novel. I’ve read a few, but have found none to recommend to anyone.
Why isn’t there any novel out there that is an orthodox Catholic novel that, like “The Shack,” aims to lead people to be closer to God and to the People of God?
Partly, I think it is because secular liberal publishing bigwigs are so hostile to orthodox Catholicism. But partly too I think it is because there is little to no “market” for such books. For some reason, Catholics don’t read Catholic novels. Why?
(Merry Christmas, and let’s all skip St. Benjamin Franklin’s annual year end Shoppingfest!)
