I didn`t want to read The Shack. I mean, what can be more offputting for a person from my generation as to have "pilgrim`s progress for our time" written on it as an endorsement?

But my mom forced me to take it on the airplane. So I read it. And yes, it`s overly written, and hokey, and I cringed through all the parts where the main character is all like "I`m so upset about my daughter`s murder so I`m shy about asking why god would let that happen" and I didn`t like the forced distance the narrative puts between the reader and the main character and the horror of his story (it`s almost like reporter speak when if the story had just been written in plain third or first person I think it could have been more impactive).

But there`s a lot of good, straight, easy to understand explanation of how a Christian could believe in an all knowing, all powerful god of three parts and see that god in the world and in people everywhere, and still allow that this god would allow things such as pedophiliac murders and good people to suffer (sorry, one of the parts that didn`t resonate with me was how Jesus told the main character "your daughter wasn`t alone when she was being murdered, she knew we were there with her).

And yes, alot of this explanation is wrapped up in some very hokey wordage, but it still is useful to read, I believe, if one is a Christian and trying to figure out what some of that bible stuff is talking about.

Anyway, it was interesting. Not sure I`d recommend it to anyone outside a reading group or christian study group or someone asking me direct questions about the nature of God, but it was interesting.

Kind of recommended, but not really, or only in certain circumstances.