In the coming film adaptation of “The Shack,” a fictional book by William P. Young about a father’s path to renewed faith and healing after his young daughter’s murder, the character of God — as depicted in the novel — is portrayed as a curvy, maternal black woman.

And just as the book earned widespread notoriety and scathing critiques nearly a decade ago, the film is garnering its own praise and condemnation.

At issue is Young’s characterization of the Holy Trinity, seen through the eyes of the story’s main character, who on the four-year anniversary of his daughter’s brutal killing is mysteriously invited by someone named “Papa” — his wife’s affectionate name for God — to the abandoned shack in the Oregon woods where the girl died.

He goes, reluctant and angry, unsure …show more content…
These criticisms aren’t unfamiliar to fans of the book.

When it first published, “The Shack” was called blasphemous and a “load of crap,” and one scholar opined that Young’s depiction was evidence that evangelicals “were succumbing to the feminist pressure to image God in feminine ways.”

But this dialogue was exactly what Young intended — nudging Christians into an uncomfortable space that forced a reconciliation with how imagery affects faith connections. And his decision to portray God as a black woman is rooted in how the book came to be in the first place.

Young grew up a child of Canadian missionaries. For his first 10 years, Young lived in a tribal village in New Guinea, where he says “sexual abuse was a frequent part” of his childhood — though he has never said publicly who harmed him. The family eventually returned to North America, Young went into the ministry, later met his wife and they had