CHARACTER ANALYSIS IN THE NOVEL “THE SHACK”BASED ON
CHRISTIAN’S TRINITARIANISM
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirement for the Degree of
SarjanaPendidikan
YuliusHadyanto 112006067
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYAWACANACHRISTIANUNIVERSITY
i
CHARACTER ANALYSIS IN THE NOVEL “THE SHACK” BASED ON
CHRISTIAN’S TRINITARIANISM
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Yulius Hadyanto 112006067
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
ii
iii
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any course or accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously published or written by any other person except where due reference is made in the text.
Copyright@ 2013. Yulius Hadyanto and Purwanti Kusumaningtyas, M.Hum
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Department, Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana University, Salatiga.
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Character Analysis in The Novel “The Shack” Based on
Christian’s Trinitarianism
Yulius Hadyanto
Abstract
This study is intended to uncover the relation of Christian’ Trinitarianism between the definition by Stephen Tong and the one described inside the novel entitled The Shack. Not only serve as the selling point of The Shack, the ideas of Trinity are also projected and challenged throughout the interactive description of every character in the Trinity. Young introduce each of Trinity characters in a unique manner, not only because he tries to reassemble the complicated concept of Trinity, but he also tries to recreate and reshape the image of Trinity to be more of a human in his novel. The design of relationship between human and God in Christianity also posed a challenge in this novel. Paul Young cleverly divided the heavenly personification of God and Holy Spirit to be interacted lively with human (represented by Mackenzie, the main
character) as they also morph the human-to-God relationship into a more human-to-human relationship. As a comparison for the relationship that was described in the book I will use the definition of Trinity taken from Stephen Tong; whose thoughts and definition of Trinity became a learning foundation in many of the Christian church in Indonesia. Furthermore, I will undergo this characters analyzing process with a critical eye; I also try to understand what the author wants to show or teach to us and furthermore compare it with Tong’s theory of Trinity.
Key Words : Trinity, Triune
Introduction
The thought of writing this thesis came to me after I read the half of the novel The Shack.
One thing that makes The Shack unique is how the author depicts God in an unnatural persona.
In The Shack the communion of God appears as a family with a different racial background,
which, in this case are: African American woman as the Godhead, Asian woman as the Holy
Spirit and Middle Eastern man as Jesus. The canonical design of human’s vertical relationship
Hadyanto 2
choose “to embrace all the limitations this entailed.” (Young 101), and choose to be more
horizontal (as in mankind-to-mankind relationship) with human.
Trinitarianism has always been a part of my life living in the Christian family. The
introduction toward the idea of Trinity in Christianity came to me since I was little without even
questioned it. Now that I have the chance, armed with this case of study I would like to challenge
myself in stripping down this doctrine into the possible perspective as proposed in The Shack.
The challenge that posed in this study is not beneficial or addressed only to myself, but also to
the world of literature to show that even a canonical design such as Trinity in Christianity do
have place of interpretation and creativity under the banner of literature.
The Shack by WilliamYoung is not a book that was written only to share story but to
share Theology and its concept. Contradictory to what Soru argued in his work about how human
should give the highest award to the God’s uniqueness and mystery, The Shack tries to challenge
his argument by posing God to express the author’s experience (and opinion) about God under
the umbrella of fiction and creativity. While some part of the Christian society considered The
Shack as “undiluted heresy” (as stated by Dr. Albert Mohler, President of Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary); The Shack also poses a potential ability to reflect what Tong’s refers to
the “relationship as substitution to analogy in understanding the concept of Trinity” (Tong 27).
Which I would like to uncover how much this potential could reach under the “help” of the
Research Question
How Trinity is portrayed in The Shack?
Methodology
As the frame of thought in this thesis, I will use M.H Abram’s mimetic approach to see
how Trinitarianism portrayed throughout the story in the novel which I use to help me. Mimetic
Theories frameworks will help me associating the literary work with the representation of the
reality in the world and explaining the imitation aspect expressed through the characters in the
novel The Shack. In other words, Mimetic theories serve me the purpose to define how the
characters in the novel The Shack correlate with Christian’s Holy Trinity concept.
After I introduce the underlying theory about Trinity based on Stephen Tong’s teaching I
will analyze by comparing the theory of Trinity with the character descriptions, actions and
interactions in the book The Shack; furthermore I will also researching on how the character
develop in the book along with the description of Trinitarianism.
The Scope of the Study
The Definition of the Trinitarianism that I will use to analyze The Shack comes mainly
from Stephen Tong’s book entitled “Allah Tritunggal” (The Trinity of God) published in 1993;
with several additions from other authors such as Lionel Hartley from his book entitled The
Trinity and Bruce A. Ware from his journal entitled Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Relationships,
Roles, and Relevance. The scope of this study will only cover the characters analysis of Trinity
both from Stephen Tong’s definition and Young’s novel entitled The Shack on how does it
Hadyanto 4
The Significance of Study
This study will be beneficial for the literary studies in understanding the perspective and
the development of the Christian’ Trinitarianism in literature. Moreover, this studies hopefully
able to pose a challenge towards the unbending design in viewing God’s and how we regard the
Holy Trinity.
Theoretical Framework
My theoretical framework comes mainly from Stephen Tong’s thought; a celebrated
reverend from Malaysia and acknowledged for his firm theological teaching in Christianity.
Tong believes that acknowledging God is an elementary to all wisdom in this world; as Tong
quotes from Proverb 1:7 and Psalm 111:10 (Tong 3). Tong also stated that recognition toward
God is also a quest to recognize oneself; because humans are made based on the God’s mapping
and models (Tong 3). Along with Tong’s belief toward God’s recognition, Ware also suggest in
his work that God do have important messages for humans to acknowledge by revealing the
Triune of his existence (Ware 13).
Trinity as what Stephen Tong described in his book “Allah Tritunggal” (The Trinity of
God) is the concept that underlies in the Christian’s doctrine and the essence of its teaching.
Christian’s Trinity is Monotheism (believing in one God), despite the description of the three
characters or persona in one God’s authority. Trinity is three individual in one God or three
individual in one Godly substance (Tong 29); and as Tong emphasizes, it is:
“In Trinity, the First person is not the Second and the Second person is not the Third.
three individual, and three individual on a one essence of unity; this is Trinity.” (Tong
79)
So, Trinity is neither about having three Gods altogether nor a God acknowledged in a three
different circumstances (Soru), instead, Trinity is a harmonic communion in the Godliness. This
communion as Tong would describe it is a communion of love; and as Ware would justify:
“In this tri-Personal relationship the three Persons love one another, support one another,
assist one another, team with one another, honor one another, communicate with one
another, and in everything respect and enjoy one another. They are in need of nothing but
each other throughout all eternity.” (Ware 21).
And to help understand more about Trinity and how it correlates to each other based on the
concept proposed by Tong above, below I provide a famous ancient diagram of Trinity also
known as “The Shield of Trinity”.
Figure 1 “An Ancient Diagram of Trinity” as published in Stanley L. Derickson’s Notes on Theology
Trinity cannot and should not be rationalized because God is a substance beyond
human’s rationalization; and our rationalization is nothing compares to the God’s rationalization
(Tong). Not only Tong, Soru also said the same thing by furthermore adapting John Locke’s
Hadyanto 6
God’s and God is the only one who posses “Perfect Rationalization” in which Soru correlate
with Locke’s Supra-Rationalization theory where human’s mere “Rational” could never
understand such rationalization embedded in God (Soru 20). Simply put, Comparing our
(human) thought with God’s is like comparing a bird in the sky against the sun’s light, according
to Vorgrimler quoting Thomas Aquinas. (Vorgrimler 22)
Since human’s rationalization cannot be compared to the God’s rationalization, therefore,
there are no correct analogies in describing Trinity (Tong 22) despite how rational it is. As a
substitution to the “analogy” in understanding Trinity, Tong proposed “Relation” (Tong 27) an
inaccurate but a helpful theory in understanding Trinity. “Relation”, as he describes it, illustrated
by the existence of Holy Bible. Christians only have one bible consisted of Old Testament and
New Testament, but if the Bible is only one copy how would everyone supposed to read it? Tong
said it is an unnecessary problem because we can have our self one copy of a Bible, but that does
not mean Christians have various bibles; The Bible is indeed numerous in the copy but still the
essence is the same, the Holy Bible. Trinity, on the similar manner, is three individual (similar to
how Bible comes in numerous copy only in this case it is limited only to three) with their own
trait, uniqueness and function but having the same essence altogether, the essence of God.
The essence of God as I mentioned above is the key to understand Trinity’s characteristic
(based on the canonical concept of Trinity) stated in the Holy Bible. To help breaking down
these characteristic, Tong propose five concepts (Tong 34), that become the basic framework in
this study to analyze the Holy Trinity characters in this study, they are:
• Transcendence: God is different than any other and beyond anything.
• Absolute: The one who overcomes everything that is relative.
• Perfect: Always fulfilled, and the source of all fulfillment.
• Eternity: Have no beginning and no end.
Regarding to the canonical concepts of Trinity’s characteristic above, Tim Challies strictly
underlines that: “Though definitions of the doctrine of the Trinity may vary, at its heart must be
three statements: God is three persons. Each person is fully God. There is one God.” (Challies
10).
Each of the members in the Trinity has unique roles in the process of creation and
redemption. According to Challies, in the process of creation the Father speaks the words that
brought universe into being, while the Son is carrying out the work of creation and Holy Spirit
sustaining and manifest God’s presence over it; As in the process of redemption the Father plans
the redemption, then sending His only Son as the redeemer while Holy Spirit is sent through the
Son to apply the redemption into the mankind (Challies 12). The theory stated by Challies also
goes in resonance with what Tong believes as the task’s diversification in the body of Trinity;
where God (The Father) act as the one who stated, Jesus as the one who declare, and Holy Spirit
as the one who make all the declaration possible.
Though the Father always stands out as the creator, prime mover, and the leader of
Trinity; there are actually no hierarchies between the Trinity and as the substitution to the
“hierarchies”, Bruce Ware states in his journal that:
“The triune relationships of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit cause us to marvel at the
authority-submission structure that exists eternally in the three Persons in the Godhead,
Hadyanto 8
Where he also adds that:
“The most marked characteristic of Trinity’s relationships is the presence of an eternal
and inherent expression of authority and submission.” (Ware 21).
Pointing out to the facts that the authority and submission abounds in the body of Trinity is
sincere and without coercion, which can only be generated from the eternal wholeness as in the
body of the Trinity and later on to be exemplified to human through the life of Jesus Christ.
For further analysis I will breakdown each Trinity member into the definition taken from
the Holy Bible all from the insights of Tong, Challies, Hartley and Ware.
The Father
God the Father is the head of the Trinity who always stands out as the leader of Trinity
(Ware 21) even though there are no such things as hierarchy in Trinity – only submission. The
Father have supreme authority (Ware 21)as being the prime mover and the planner (Hartley 6);
which means God the Father have an important roles in the process of creation (Ware 21), and
the one The Father is the one who sets things into motions. God the Father is unbound by any
gender or shape; The Father is a pure essence of Godliness and divinity that embraces humanity.
Hartley in his journal wrote down some of the criteria on how God the Father should
means to our life. As Hartley puts it: The Father should be the Comfort, Strength, Hope,
Concentration in prayer, and Guidance in holy living; If He is not these things to you, then you
The Son
God the Son is :“the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except
through me.” (New International Version, John. 14. 6). Jesus, the well-known name for the Son,
is the redeemer of humankind who died in the cross for the sake of Human’s sins; therefore
making Him as the symbol of God’s salvation and forgiveness in the Christian. Even though one
of the marked characteristic of Jesus is His unquestioning love and obedience toward The Father;
Jesus is equally God compared to Father and The Holy Spirit.
Hartley describes Jesus as the model and the prime activator for God plans for all
mankind (Hartley 6). What Hartley meant by that is how Jesus act as the catalyst of human’s
salvation plans that was planned by God the Father; thus making Jesus as the center (or the
“main” actor) of the plans; or as Ware describes Jesus as the “payment of infinity value to our
sin” (Ware 17). In more detailed manner, Hartley also noted down the characteristic criteria of
The Son in his journal; As Hartley puts it: The Son should be the savior, a brother to the
mankind, the example for a living righteousness, message for humanity, and the reason of
serving. If God the Son is not these things to you, you are then missing out the true joy and
power of almighty God (Hartley 8).
Holy Spirit
According to Ware’s definition, the main role of Holy Spirit in Christian’s life is to
“Mediates to us the blessings of Christ’s work.” (Ware 18); Or in other word, the prime
messenger between God and man (Hartley 6). The roles of Holy Spirit is not limited to the
messenger of God but also as the promised helper and comforter for those who believes in God
Hadyanto 10
comfort, and illuminator; If God the Holy Spirit is not these things to you then you will not be in
close communication with the God that extended His mercy to you through salvation. (Hartley 9)
Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth (New International Version, John. 16.13); its words are
not to be ignored or insulted for its words is the word of God. This can be found and emphasized
continuously in the book of Matthew 12:32, Luke 12:10, and Mark 3:29. It is also emphasized
that whoever blasphemes or speak against Holy Spirit will suffer an eternal and unforgivable sin.
Holy Spirit is described like a wind in the Holy Bible; it goes wherever it wants. As said
in the Book of John: “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot
tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (New
International Version, John. 3. 8). Being more than a spirit, Holy Spirit is an emotional entity
like human. Besides love and joy, It could also feel sadness and grief as written in the book of
Ephesians (which also comes with a words of warning): “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of
God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (New International Version,
Ephesians. 4. 30).
The Trinity Overall
Here I would like to stress again that Trinity is all about the harmony in one Godliness.
Trinity is different from each other, but still in one unity; As Bruce Ware said in his journal:
“Here is a unity of differentiation, where love abounds and where neither jealousy nor
pride is known. Each divine Person accepts his role, each in proper relation to the others,
and each works together with the others for one unified, common purpose. It is nothing
short of astonishing to contemplate the fundamental and pervasive unity within the
In the body of Trinity there are no jealously, conflict or power gap for the Trinity is one in three
and three in one. To understand the concept of Trinity wholly is a feat that no man could do.
However, it is not impossible to grab a glimpse of understanding the concept of Trinity since it is
the God Himself who wants us to learn goodness from the concept of Trinity.
Discussion
The Shack told a story about Mackenzie (Mack) Phillips whose daughter, Missy, was
abducted during a family vacation. It was found later that Missy is abducted by a serial killer
who targeted young girls and slay them in an abandoned shack on a secluded mountain area.
As the story begins, Mack who has been living under the shadowy guilt and anger
because of the Missy’s death called the Great Sadness, suddenly received a note from God (also
known as Papa). Papa invited Mack to return to the very shack where his daughter murdered by
the sadistic killer. Though Mack is uncertain about the Papa (and often thinks it as one big sick
joke) he decided go to the shack and later on experiences a heartwarming family discussion with
the Trinity (The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit) who appears in the human forms. In the
very same shack where Mack lost his daughter and most of his hopes, Mack is also having a
resolution to overcome his Great Sadness with the help of the Trinity.
Papa: The Heartwarming Love
The most interesting and challenging part of the The Shack character’s analysis is Papa,
the character in The Shack who supposed to represent God the Father in the Trinity. The
Hadyanto 12
goes in line with the Tong comprehensive descriptions about God the Father (Tong 10). Papa is
characterized as genderless person, though the name itself carries patriarchal element, and
uniquely appears as different persona in different occasion in the story involving Mack (the main
character).It was explained in the book that Papa’s gender neutrality is essential to Papa’s
existence, and that Papa appearing as both gender is simply for the sake of Mack’s own
understanding (Young 93); therefore Papa later appears to Mack as a man when he needs a father
(Young 218), Papa also stressed the reason of her gender flexibility in the quotation below:
“… there are many reasons for that (revealing herself as Father), and some of them go
very deep. Let me say for now that we knew once the Creation was broken, true
fathering would be much more lacking than mothering.” (Young 94)
Papa comes in the three personifications throughout the story. Those personifications come in the
forms of: African-American female housewife (which refers to herself as Elousia), a beautiful
Hispanic woman named Sophia, and the silver-white haired male version of the Papa.
In Mack’s first encounter with the Trinity when he decided to go to the shack where Papa
(the God) invited him (chapter 5 “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”); Papa introduced herself as
Elousia in a motherly African-American female form. The brief description of Elousia is one of
those typical African-American housewives whose appearance can be related to the character of
“Aunt Jemima" by Anna Robinson, a trademark of the Quaker Oats Company dated in 1893,
only with the addition of “large and beaming African –American woman” (Young 82). Beside
the heart warming and motherly nature as shown throughout the story, Papa is also light-hearted,
“Mac followed her soft humming down a short hallway and into an open kitchen-dining
area, complete with a small four-seat table and wicker-backed chairs. The inside of the
cabin was roomier than he had expected. Papa was working on something with her back
to him, flour flying as she swayed to the music of whatever she was listening to. The
song obviously came to an end, marked by a couple of last shoulder and hip shakes.
Turning to face him, she took off the earphones.” (Young 90)
This characterization of Papa is unique in its own sense; not only because God took a form of
female-housewife or from a certain human race but also because it is quite rare to find a
descriptions befitting a God who shakes shoulder and hip while listening to a “Funk music”
through the earphones (Young 91). The name Elousia is actually associated with the Greek word
for “sun”, which pretty much describes the personification of Papa; and as the name suggested,
we could expect a warm-tenderly nature who is full of affections and kindness from the character
of Papa, complete with a true display of pure maternal loves toward Her children and creation.
In chapter 11 “Here Come da Judge” where Mack is brought into a dark cave that
resemble a court room with only a chair for Mack and a majestic ebony desk, a judge who
happened to be the other personification of “Papa” called Sophia, appears right before Mack to
adjudicate Mack’s great sadness and solve it. In her first appearance Sophia is described as:
“Behind the desk sat a tall, beautiful, olive-skinned woman with chiseled Hispanic
features, clothed in a dark colored flowing robe. She sat as straight and regal as a high
court judge. She was stunning.” (Young 163).
In this version, God the Father act as the judge for Mack to help him dealing with the guilty that
Hadyanto 14
aura and warmth presence that Mack’s feel when papa is around and it was said later on that this
personification of Papa’s wisdom is inspired from the Proverb, “where wisdom is pictured as a
woman calling out in the streets trying to find anyone who’ll listen to her.” (Young 184). This
shown us that Papa’s personification of Sophia is similar to Sarayu (the personification of Holy
Spirit), since she employs the same task as the wisdom revealer just like the Holy Spirit.
The last personification of Papa appears in the Chapter 16, “A Morning of Sorrows”
where Mack is asked to join Papa for a hike; and more than a ordinary hiking trip, this time Papa
wanted to talk about the anger dwelt in Mack’s heart toward the culprit that murdered Mack’s
daughter, however in the end of this story it is unveiled that the real intention of Papa is to lead
Mack to a place where the body of deceased Mack’s daughter has been hidden by the murderer.
In this chapter Papa appears in the form of an elderly male because He personally thought that
Mack is going to need a figure of a father regarding the upcoming event (Young 240). There are
no vivid explanation about what race do this personification of Papa employs; but judging from
the way the author described it as “…look a bit like Papa; dignified, older, wiry and taller than
Mack” (Young 240), which I presume this personification of Papa’s also comes from a
African-American race, similar to His female counterpart. Furthermore, the appearance of this male
version of Papa is described as:
“He had silver-white hair pulled back into a ponytail, matched by a gray splashed
moustache and goatee. Plaid shirt with sleeves rolled up, jeans, and hiking boots
completed the outfit of someone ready to hit the trail.” (Young 240).
This time Papa looked a lot wiser with stronger and firmer manner than His female counterpart,
head-on in His conversation with Mack. This can be seen by how He’s exposing Mack’s problem
straight away to deal with Mack’s vengeance toward the murderer and, moreover, talk about the
forgiveness (Young 246).
God the Father is complex and so does this character of Papa; not only Papa employ as
the depiction of one of the Trinity’s member he also comes in three extra personalities which
comes in a different forms and personality. Papa’s genderless characteristic is inspired by God
the Father’s neutrality in gender. One of the Papa‘s explanation on his/her gender neutrality to
Mack is:
“Mackenzie, I am neither male nor female, even though both genders are derived from
my nature. If I choose to appear to you as a man or a woman, it’s because I love you. For
me to appear to you as a woman and suggest that you call me ‘Papa’ is simply to mix
metaphors, to help you keep from falling so easily back into your religious conditioning.”
(Young 94)
Later on Papa continued:
“To reveal myself to you as a very large, white grandfather figure with flowing beard ,
like Gandalf, would simply reinforce your religious stereotypes, and this weekend is not
about reinforcing your religious stereotypes.” (Young 94)
Although the personification of Papa is artificial and irrational, this helps giving us a
glimpse of the mysteriousness concept of God that is unbounded by any forms and goes beyond
human rational as what Tong referred to the Supra-Rational (Tong 11). However, there are flaws
of concept from this supposed-to-be-depiction of God the Father. One of the downsides can be
Hadyanto 16
argument that clearly contradicts many Christians’ view who feels that God do actively answers
prayer and intervenes in our lives. The second flaw is shown in the part where Papa said that: “I
don’t create institutions—never have, never will.”; while on the other hand, in the book of
Romans 13 it is said that: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is
no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore
whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur
judgment.” (New International Version, Roman 13.1); and by implying that God has nothing to
do with the idea of institution, it is indirectly oppose the idea of institution in church and
marriage.
Jesus: The Best Friend
In the story Jesus appears as a well-built man befitting an image of a person from the
Middle East (Hebrew, the house of Judah to be exact). He looked to be in his thirties and stood a
little shorter than Mack (Young 86); Jesus is often described in the book dressed as a carpenter
“…complete with tool belt and gloves” (Young). As the author describe Him:
“He stood easily, leaning against the door jam with arms crossed in front of him, wearing
jeans covered in wood dust and plaid shirt with sleeves rolled just above the elbows ,
revealing well muscled forearms. His feature were pleasant enough, but he was not
particularly handsome – not a man who would stick out in a crowd. But his eyes and
smile lit up.” (Young)
As a man who” wouldn’t stick out in a crowd“, Jesus is depicted as human as He can be. Mack
personally addressed Jesus like a dear friend unlike how Mack addresses Papa or Sarayu, not in
241). Mack feels his relationship with Jesus is more freely; as if Mack interacts with a fellow
friend, a long lost dear friend. Jesus is also described as a fully dedicated family man and son; He
loves and loved by the family of Trinity.
One interesting part of Jesus in this story happened in one conversation between Mack
and Papa. In one event Mack uttered his belief that the miracles of Jesus are the evidence of
Jesus’ Godliness which was stand corrected by Papa by saying that the miracles Jesus had done
is the proves that Jesus is truly human; and then Papa explains later on:
“Jesus is fully human. Although he is also fully God, he has never drawn upon his nature
as God to do anything. He has only lived out of his relationship with me, living in the
very same manner that I desire to be in relationship with every human being. He is just
the first to do it to the uttermost—the first to absolutely trust my life within him, the first
to believe in my love and my goodness without regard for appearance or consequence.”
(Young 101 - 102)
Mack is shocked to learn this from Papa, and then he asks furthermore about how Jesus healing
the blind in which Papa explains:
“He did so as a dependent, limited human being trusting in my life and power to be at
work within him and through him. Jesus, as a human being, had no power within himself
to heal anyone.” (Young 102)
“Only as he rested in his relationship with me, and in our communion—our co-union—
Hadyanto 18
Jesus and it appears that he’s flying, he really is . . . flying. But what you are actually
seeing is me; my life in him. That’s how he lives and acts as a true human, how every
human is designed to live—out of my life.” (Young 102)
From the evidences and the quotations above we can learn on how Jesus depends on his Father to
do all miracles and thus limiting Himself only as the child of men and not as a God. This actually
exemplified the way Jesus wants all mankind to be; to lean their hope and pray only to God the
father while not clinging on one’s strength and so by limiting Himself to become a human he
gives example on a relationship that is not based on the position of power. The bible reference of
this teaching can be found in the Colossians which says: “For in Christ all the fullness of the
Deity lives in bodily form.” (New International Version, Colossians 2.9). The idea Jesus’
humanity is enhanced and stressed repeatedly throughout the story; one of which can be seen
declared in the quotation as follow: “I am fully God, but I am human to the core. Like I said, it’s
Papa’s miracle.” (Young 112); And by saying “it’s Papa’s miracle” Jesus actually referred to the
explanation that His Godliness under the human skin is a feat that God the Father can do.
By limiting himself to be same as mankind Jesus break through the boundaries of man
and God. As if breaking the boundary itself is not enough, Jesus manages to create another
harmonic relationship with human where God’s loves abound in closer places with His own
creation and provides a means for their salvation. The depiction of Jesus in The Shack comes in
synergy with Hartley’s definition as it fully composed the means of Jesus being a friend, brother,
and savior for Mack. Not only He becomes the best friend that Mack’s ever had He also manages
to save him from the dark pit of guilty, the Great Sadness. The evidence of Jesus being both
friend and the savior at the same time can be found in the chapter 10 “Wade in The Water” ,
Sarayu: The Gardener of Life
Sarayu is the depiction of God the Holy Spirit in The Shack. She comes in the form of an
Asian woman, which according to Mack originated from Northern Chinese or Nepalese or even
Mongolian ethnicity (Young 85). Sarayu as Mack sees her is:
“From her clothing, Mack assumed she was a groundskeeper or gardener. She had gloves
folded into her belt, not the heavy leathers of the man, but the lightweight
cloth-and-rubber ones that Mack himself used for yard work at home. She was dressed in plain
jeans with ornamental designs at the fringes – knees covered in dirt from where she had
been kneeling – and a brightly colored blouse with splashes of yellow and red and blue.
But he knew all this as more of an impression of her than from actually seeing her, as she
seemed to phase in and out of his vision.” (Young 85)
As we can see from the quotation above, Mack is actually having some difficult times looking at
Sarayu. It is for no reason that Mack can’t see Sarayu clearly; it’s all because Sarayu, somehow,
emits these radiant lights around her face that makes her difficult to see. This aptitude of Sarayu
is stressed throughout the story, as seen in the quotation below taken from the chapter 9 “A Long
Time Ago, In A Garden Far, Far Away”, when Mack followed Sarayu to her secret garden:
“To walk behind such a being was like tracking a sunbeam. Light seemed to radiate
through her and then reflect her presence in multiple places at once. Her nature was rather
ethereal, full of dynamic shades and hues of color and motion. No wonder so many
people are a little unnerved at relating to her, Mack thought. She obviously is not a being
Hadyanto 20
“… not a being who is predictable” unveiled one of Sarayu main characteristics, beside her
common majestic and heartwarming trait from her share of Godliness with Trinity. Her
mysteriousness is a completion element to her elegance and charming characteristic. She is often
described as untouchable and somehow ethereal, but at the same time her presence is closer than
anyone else. Her presence is pretty much described by her name where “Sarayu” actually means
“air” or “wind” in Sanskrit; on which we can find some resemblance in the Holy Bible as
indicated by the quotation below:
“The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it
comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (New
International Version, John 3.8)
Sarayu as defined by Papa: “She is Creativity; she is Action; she is the Breathing of Life;
she is much more. She is my Spirit.” (Young 110). This is one of the Sarayu’s points of interest
as it shows us how she as a character somehow lacks of a physical identity; or much like a part of
an individual. This evidence expanded in the part where she speaks about herself, Papa, and
Jesus:
“I am… I am a verb. I am that I am. I will be who I will be. I am a verb! I am alive,
dynamic, ever active, and moving. I am a being verb… my very essence is a verb.”
(Young 204)
Sarayu is perhaps the most complicated characters to describe, second only to Papa. Not
only because of her mysterious characteristic in the book but also the fact that Sarayu employ as
the personification of Holy Spirit which is deemed full of controversy and variance in the
appearance or bodily form since it is a spirit, other than a dove as shown in the book of Luke:
“and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from
heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’ “(New International
Version, Luke 3.22). By giving a bodily form in the story, the character Sarayu also pose a
challenge to the readers; because to fix such a concept like Holy Spirit into a solid form is not a
concept well-accepted in the Christian’s scripture and yet from it we can learn a lot about Holy
Spirit’s characteristic.
Conclusion
Trinity in The Shack is portrayed to be more of human, complete with its features and
limitations that entail it. Trinity is explained in the literature-way that poses a challenge to its
reader, especially the Christian, to materialize such a Holy Scripture thing in the form of
literature where God described as a material being instead of immaterial one. The God’s
materializing process does not stop on the idea of God’s presence in the mortal world but also
come to the process of shape and reshaping the characterization of God into a specific age,
gender and multicultural portrayal; with the addition idea of God’s unbounded love toward His
creation as the center of it. In The Shack we could see a more down to earth and friendlier God,
which is a positive thing seeing how we can relate that aptitude to the Christian’s idea of peace
and love where it doesn’t bound by a specific gender or race of mankind; a place where loves
trespass the difference and power position, which is pretty much sums up the essence of
Hadyanto 22
The Shack contribution in the literature world does not come in the form of a mere
answer about God and the Trinity. More than that The Shack serves its contribution in the form
of giving more question and the ideas of possible challenge addressed to a canonical design such
as the scripture itself; and from the discussion above I can conclude that The Shack tries to
portrayed God (and Trinity) as humanly and friendlier as possible without ignoring the Holy
Bible as the reference; though there are some part of the story that stirred away from the Holy
scripture’ concept. In my opinion, the story in this novel attempts to show us that term such as
“God” is often overrated and over-thought while in fact God actually exists in every possible
aspect of humanity, where in this story it is described as in the every aspect of Mack’s life
Acknowledgment
First of all I would like to thanks God for His guidance, inspiration, strength, and chances
for me so that I can finally finish my thesis and study in Satya Wacana Christian University.
I would also like to thanks my family: My mother, my father, my elder brother Josua and
my sister Yohana; for their endless prayer and support through the years of my life; Especially to
my parents who never cease to believe in me.
I would like to thank all of my friends: Yuki, Tata, Ifan, Christoper, Ivan Tims, and many
other dearest friends for supporting and cheering me up during my struggle in my study. I would
also like to give Many thanks to my friends in Salatiga: Sukowati 49b’s boys (Okky, Yana, Yosi,
Samuel, Ie Hao , Koh Iwen, Ayub, Herry, Daniel) you guys are the best and wish you all luck in
your career ahead; my fellow English Department colleague (Ririn, Sherly, Christa, Evellyn, and
many others) who gives me a lot of advice and helps that I need during my struggle in making
this thesis.
I would also like to give a thousand of gratitude for my teachers and lecturers in English
Department: Mas Erio, Bu Frances, and Pak Anton for their patience in guiding me through
every advising session; Ibu Purwanti for your patience and time in helping me finish my thesis;
Ibu Suzana Maria, for being such a wonderful teacher and 2nd reader for my thesis; and to Satya
Wacana’s English Department itself, for I couldn’t think any better place to give me not only
knowledge about English language but also knowledge about being a human to its fullest.
Lastly, a special thanks for the love of my life, Kathy Eirine. For only through your
endless support and honest love only, I could finally manage to finish my thesis and study. I
Hadyanto 24
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Challies, Tim. 20 May 2008. www.challies.com. 13 January 2012
<http://www.challies.com/book-reviews/a-review-of-the-shack-download-it-here>.
Hartley, Lionel. The Trinity. Murwilumbah: LDC Hartley, 1998.
Marshall, Bruce D. Trinity and Truth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Menzies, William W.; Horton, Stanley M. Bible Doctrines: A Pentecostal Perspective. Gospel Pub House, 1993.
Mohler, Albert. "http://www.albertmohler.com." 27 January 2010. AlbertMohler.com. 23 April 2012 <http://www.albertmohler.com/2010/01/27/the-shack-the-missing-art-of-evangelical-discernment/>.
Soru, Esra Alfred. Tritunggal Yang Kudus: Sebuah pendekatan Historis, Teologis dan Filosofis. Bandung: Lembaga Literatur Baptis, 2002.
Tong, Stephen. Allah Tritunggal (The Trinity of God). Surabaya: Momentum (Lembaga Reformed Injili Indonesia), 1993.
Vorgrimler, Herbert. Trinitas. Bapa, Firman Roh kudus (Gott. Vater, Sohn und Heiliger Geist). Yogyakarta: Penerbit Kanisius, 2005.
Ware, Bruce A. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, and Relevance. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2005.
