KRUGER - The Shack Revisited

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Copyright 2012 by C. Baxter Kruger, Ph.D.

Except where noted, Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible. Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NEB are from The New English Bible with Apocrypha, copyright 1961, 1970, 1989 by Oxford University Press, Inc., and Cambridge University Press, Inc. Used by permission of Oxford University Press, Inc.

Permission granted by William P. Young for quotations from The Shack (Newbury Park, CA: Windblown Media, 2007).

Lyrics from Burning Ember, by Steve Bell, from the album Burning Ember (Peg Music, 1998) used with permission.

Lyrics from Miriam, by Pierce Pettis, from the album Making Light of It (Compass Records, 1996) used with permission.

Lyrics from Family, by Pierce Pettis, from the album Chase the Buffalo (High Street Records, 1993) used with permission.

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the authors intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the authors rights.

The author is represented by Ambassador Literary Agency, Nashville, TN.

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First e-book edition: October 2012

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ISBN 978-1-4555-1681-0

THE SHACK REVISITED is Baxters masterpiece. On the canvas of The Shack he has distilled the heart of the Trinity. This book is a Bible School for all of us, expounding the heart of the God who is love. A must read.

Malcolm Smith, International Bible Teacher and author of The Power of the Blood Covenant

The completion of the book (The Shack) that fascinated us all by the only hand and mind that could.

Rev. John Jennings, Vancouver

Parable of the Dancing God

God Is For Us

The Great Dance

Jesus and the Undoing of Adam

Across All Worlds

For Laura
O beautiful daughter of mine,
You have made me smile every day of your life.

To all those who took the time to read and study The Shack, to those who bought several copies or a case or more and gave them away and e-mailed me your wonderful stories, I want to say, Thank you, and please read The Shack Revisited. If you want to understand better the perspectives and theology that frame The Shack, this book is for you. Baxter has taken on the incredible task of exploring the nature and character of the God who met me in my own shack. A Mississippi theologian who cut his intellectual teeth in Aberdeen, Scotland, with the Torrance brothers, Baxter is a unique cross of intellectual brilliance and creative genius. He fashions lures that are so beautiful people hang them on their walls rather than actually fish with them, which to Baxter is a crying shame. According to him, everything in creation should be put to its intended use, whether bass, beer, or Barth. He is a master of making difficult things understandable for the rest of us. If you found hope and encouragement through The Shack, this book will help you take more steps in knowing the love of Papa, Sarayu, and Jesus.

It has now been a few years since I penned a story for my six mostly grown children, trying to get it done by Christmas in the busyness of working three jobs and life. I thought I was building them a rowboat, you know the kind, with a couple of oars and just enough room to take them out on the lake two at a time. Surprising everyone, especially me, it came out a supertanker that has since plowed its way through the ocean of humanity, leaving behind a cosmic wake. If you chance a glance at the name of this ship, you will see it is christened Gods Sense of Humor.

My spiritual upbringing was eclectic and mostly solitary. Even though I attended Bible school and seminary, it was for me a lonely journey accompanied by the one-dimensional voices of dusty pages and cassette speeches and sermons. One wouldnt call Sren Kierkegaard exactly fun company, but along with him and others such as Jacques Ellul, George MacDonald, Malcolm Smith, Jean Vanier, C. S. Lewis, and a host of dead and living writers and theologiansand a lot of rock n rollI made my way through the wastelands and into what? I wasnt sure. I had discovered that the island on which I was a castaway was also inhabited by a plethora of musicians and poets, writers, thinkers, and comedians, each with something to share: sometimes an insight, sometimes an encouragement. The Shack has also been a raft on which I have journeyed out into the vastness of the sea to discover a family of faith that I had not known; I had heard the names, but never met them in person. I discovered my roots, and found that my family tree extended to names like Athanasius and Torrance, Barth, Polycarp, Irenaeus, and so many more, crossing boundaries set by religious divisions and faith cultures.

There has been a tumult of response to The Shack, the vast majority of it positive. In e-mails alone I have well over a hundred thousand stories sharing how the book has intersected the lives of precious people on wildly divergent journeys. From the helping community, those who actually work in the arenas of healing with real people by way of psychology, spiritual formation, step programs, psychiatry, pastoral care, and so on, I have yet to receive one negative comment or review. What matters to these healers is that something actually works and is of value and aid to those they care for and treasure.

Criticisms have come almost exclusively from religious folk, and I am not intending the term in a pejorative sense. Of course there are those who have taken a position without having read the book for themselves, thereby discounting their right even to pretend an opinion, but there are others who truly feel the weight of responsibility to protect the flock of the faithful and to defend God against the intrusion of heresy or seductive doctrines. We are grateful for these brothers and sisters who are part of the family conversation, and we have carefully considered their responses.