Katie Murray
The Shack by William Paul Young was published in May of 2007 with a publishing budget of only $300 (1). Originally, Young wrote this novel as a gift for his children at the request of his wife, and since then it has been heralded by many as a miraculous success. It is, essentially, the story of Young’s spiritual journey, translated into a fictional story about Mack, a man who encounters God and the trinity after encountering a tragedy in his life. Young compressed years of spiritual growth into one weekend for the character Mack (1).
For a book that had no real endorsement and was largely self-published, The
Shack has achieved wide-spread fame in a relatively short period of time,
mostly through word of mouth (2). For my project, I have
conducted some informal surveys and interviews about the reception of The
Shack at Loyola and in the larger Christian community. As a Catholic community,
Loyola received the novel largely with endorsement, with about 10% of students
surveyed having read the novel, and 100% of interviewed students saying that
they would recommend the novel to others.