I don't care what Eugene Peterson says.
The Shack is NOTHING like Pilgrim's Progress.
Yes, like The Shack, Pilgrim's Progress was a fiction, but the HUGE difference was that Pilgrim's Progress didn't digress and present a God that is totally contrary to the God of the Bible.
Anything people learn about God from The Shack, is not about the God of the Bible, but rather a god of William Young's imagination.
The fact that it is fiction has little relevancy. You cannot try to rebutt criticism by using its fictional nature and at the same time make claims as to how much influence it has. On the back cover of "The Shack" it says:
"In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant The Shack wrestles with the timeless question "Where is God filled with unspeakable pain?" The answer Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him...................."
Clearly it bills itself as having correct theology that is intended to change people's lives. This book is complete heresy and very dangerous. It should be condemned on a regular basis and discredited at every chance. No theological conservative would support this book. Ever
Who will be the prophet among them? Organizations reach a self preservation mode when the organizations get larger and when it loses sight of its focus.
Not sure what this has to with the thread but I'll play.
The shack is fiction but it speaks about the God of Christianity, the God of the Bible. To call HIm something he is not is breaking the 3rd commandment and even the 2nd for in this work of fiction a man who claims to be a believer is making God out to be something that God never communicated Himself to be. So while you find this book in the fiction section is does teach theology for it deals with God. How can you say otherwise?