text: Is "The Shack" a true story of a "spiritual journey"? 
  Does something have to be factual to be true?
  Everything in the Bible is true and some of it really happened.
  If your litmus test for a story is that it be literal and factual you will miss the joy of discovering truth in surprising places such as the fictional parables that Jesus told and more contemporary writers like Flannery O'Connor. "The Shack" is not great literature but the narrative film tells a relevant story of a man's spiritual journey that is filled with great pain countered by hope and faith.