About Philip
Growing up in a strict, fundamentalist church in the southern USA, a young Philip Yancey tended to view God as “a scowling Supercop, searching for anyone who might be having a good time—in order to squash them.” Yancey jokes today about being in recovery from a toxic church. “Of course, there were good qualities too. If a neighbor’s house burned down, the congregation would rally around and show charity—if, that is, the house belonged to a white person. I grew up confused by the contradictions. We heard about love and grace, but I didn’t experience much. And we were taught that God answers prayers, miraculously, but my father died of polio just after my first birthday, despite many prayers for his healing.”
For Yancey, reading offered a window to a different world. So, he devoured books that opened his mind, challenged his upbringing, and went against what he had been taught. A sense of betrayal engulfed him. “I felt I had been lied to. For instance, what I learned from a book like To Kill a Mockingbird or Black Like Me contradicted the racism I encountered in church. I went through a period of reacting against everything I was taught, and even discarding my faith. I began my journey back mainly by encountering a world very different than I had been taught, an expansive world of beauty and goodness. Along the way I realized that God had been misrepresented to me. Cautiously, warily, I returned, circling around the faith to see if it might be true.”
Ever since, Yancey has explored the most basic questions and deepest mysteries of the Christian faith, guiding millions of readers with him. Early on he crafted best-selling books such as Disappointment with God and Where is God When it Hurts? while also editing The Student Bible. He coauthored three books with the renowned surgeon Dr. Paul Brand. “No one has influenced me more,” he says. “We had quite a trade: I gave words to his faith, and in the process he gave faith to my words.” In time, he has explored central matters of the Christian faith, penning award-winning titles such as The Jesus I Never Knew, What’s So Amazing About Grace? and Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? His books have garnered 13 Gold Medallion Awards from Christian publishers and booksellers. He currently has more than 17 million books in print, published in over 50 languages worldwide. In his memoir, Where the Light Fell, Yancey recalls his lifelong journey from strict fundamentalism to a life dedicated to a search for grace and meaning, thus providing a type of prequel to all his other books.
Yancey worked as a journalist in Chicago for some twenty years, editing the youth magazine Campus Life while also writing for a wide variety of magazines. In the process he interviewed diverse people enriched by their personal faith, such as President Jimmy Carter, Habitat for Humanity founder Millard Fuller, and Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of the modern hospice movement. In 1992 he and his wife Janet, a social worker and hospice chaplain, moved to the foothills of Colorado, and his writing took a more personal, introspective turn.
“I write books for myself,” he says. “I’m a pilgrim, recovering from a bad church upbringing, searching for a faith that makes its followers larger and not smaller. Writing became for me a way of deconstructing and reconstructing faith. I feel overwhelming gratitude that I can make a living exploring the issues that most interest me.
“I tend to go back to the Bible as a model, because I don’t know a more honest book. I can’t think of any argument against God that isn’t already included in the Bible. To those who struggle with my books, I reply, ‘Then maybe you shouldn’t be reading them.’ Yet some people do need the kinds of books I write. They’ve been burned by the church, or they’re upset about certain aspects of Christianity. I understand that feeling of disappointment, even betrayal. I feel called to speak to those living in the borderlands of faith.”
I’m afraid the only “hard copy” audibles are cassette tapes–the book has been around for a while! And all audibles are “abridged,” so don’t include the entire book. Sorry! –Philip
Why is it that when i’m so depressed that I honestly don’t want to wake up in the morning and beg God for a feeling of peace/a word etc that nothing happens? I have a lot of faith but when you feel God isn’t there when you’re in that much despair it’s very disheartening. I’ve got your book on Where Is God When It Hurts but to be honest it’s too overwhelming to read a big book at the moment. I can barely get out of bed.
Yes, I think a lot of it has to do with us humans relating to an invisible God. I wrote a whole book about it, “Reaching for the Invisible God.” You express depression very well. I doubt a book is the place to start. You need human contact: a counselor, a pastor, a friend. I’m sorry for what you’re going through. –Philip
Hello Phillip!
With deep gratitude, I thank you for putting a piece of your heart on paper– it truly is beautiful. You clearly reflect the grace and kindness of our Savior. Your writing has helped me through tough times and I cannot thank you enough!
I have a question that has always burned in the forefront of my mind and was wondering if you could point me to any resources. I have searched and searched and searched and have found very little that even addresses the question, and even less that at all helps. The question can basically be summed up as, ‘How can a reflective Christian remain sane while holding an orthodox view of Hell?’
I was saved at a summer camp and came home to a completely non-Christian family. For the past 6 years, I have prayed for them every day and still come home to a completely non-Christian family (with the exclusion of my now-spouse, which is a tremendous blessing). I face a lot of inner turmoil because of this and have no idea how to move forward. I have many friends now who face similar anguish. This seems to be a very common, often ignored, question among Christians.
Let me know if you have insight or resources on any of this. I would be deeply grateful. If not, I suppose you can quit brainstorming the topic of your next book! ha ha 😉
Thank you, again, Phillip, for being such a tremendous blessing to so many– you have a heart of gold!
You’re very kind, thank you.
The best book on Hell I know is The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis. It’s sane, reflective, and creative. I haven’t read Hell: The Logic of Damnation by Jerry Walls, but that may be helpful too.
All the best,
Philip