The Shack and the Search

I am in the middle of my first and, I hope, only reading of The Shack by William P. Young. I will suspend judgment until I finish the book--but I am gravely suspicious. I also have been in search of a review of the book by an orthodox seasoned literary critic from an Evangelical liberal arts college. Spending a few minutes searching the Internet, so far, has yielded only sympathetic reviews from younger, less qualified folks than the type previously mentioned.

But while searching for such reviews I landed on a sight I am very interested in. It's called The Search written by Brett McCracken, a self-proclaimed Christian Hipster. I was drawn-in by his review of Toy Story 3 which I found to be convincing and well written. Then I took Brett's test (on his Christian Hipster Bookshelf page) to see if I am a Christian Hipster. I didn't pass the test but I have read, and regularly recommend, several of the books on his list. I would use a more conservative, yet also easily misunderstood, title to describe myself: Christian Humanist.

Then, by rummaging around Brett's sight some more, I discovered that he wrote the cover story for the September 2010 issue of Christianity Today titled "The Ironic World of Hipster Faith." I was initially offended by the cover of that issue (see above) especially since I have recently been drawn to, dare I say it, the veneration of Christians Icons. But now that I know a little more about the author, I'm tempted to take a new look at the article.

I realize that this blog post is not focused. It's very "stream of consciousness." But I have a purpose: I want to point out that I have added The Search to my Recommended Sites. I also am interested in finding helpful reviews of The Shack. So please let me know if you are aware of any reviews that 1) consider the literary value of the book, 2) consider the theology of the book from the perspective of Christian history, and 3) are written by people over forty years of age.