The emotional power of The Shack depends upon a face-to-face encounter between God and man. God the Father is represented as Papa, an African-American woman; Jesus is in the form of a man of Middle-Eastern descent and the Holy Spirit is portrayed as an Asian woman named Sarayu.
There is very little action in The Shack and the bulk of the book is dialog. The majority of the dialog occurs as the members of the Trinity communicate with Mack, though occasionally the author offers glimpses into their unique relationships with one another.
Stuart Hazeldine’s Christian film ‘The Shack’ centers around Mackenzie “Mack” Phillips and his family, who suffer a turbulent time with an unbearable tragedy. Based on the eponymous novel by William Paul Young, the film explores the grief Mack suffers and progresses through the unanticipated events that happen in his life.
Problem #3: In The Shack, the god character tells Mack that “submission is not about authority or obedience” and that the Trinity is even submitted to Mack (145). Young is suggesting that God submits to human wishes and choices. The Bible in its entirety points us to the need to submit to God.
What is Mack’s hope for the Ladykiller trial?
He is hoping for a revolution revolving around Jesus in the world, centered on love and service. Willie says his life has been changed by this story, and whether it’s completely true or not, he wants it to be true.
Sarayu helped Mack see that emotions are neither bad nor good in themselves, they just are. They add color to life but are generally a response to perception, so when based on right perceptions can be very good things and when based on wrong perceptions can be harmful. The point is to be living in truth in the first place. And truth is that knowing God isn’t about following “rules” and knowing the right answer, but about knowing the Living Answer. The Ten Commandments were a mirror to show humanity how dirty it was and bring them in humility to God who saves from that filth, but instead became something which humans used to gain independence and control and the power to judge others. She explained how “responsibility” and “expectation” are words full of law, fear and judgment and have no place in God’s relationship with mankind. Instead of responsibilities which would be duties to perform, God gave abilities to mankind, namely the ability to respond to in relationship to Papa. And instead of expectations for mankind, there is an expectancy with no concrete definitions – it’s an excitement and hopefulness about what that relationship will bring. It’s the difference between nouns and verbs. Nouns are dead, verbs are alive and active. On a final note, Jesus pointed out that he didn’t want to be at the top of the pyramid of values in Mack’s life, rather he wanted to be the center of the mobile from which all aspects of Mack’s life are connected.
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