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.”
Hey Philip
I have nearly read all your books. I have just ordered the last one ‘The Question that Never Goes Away”. Your books have helped me so much. Looking back to being young Christian who needed lots of support I often didn’t find the answers I was seeking from the Church. This lead to years of backsliding away from my faith. Stumbling upon ‘Disappointment in God’ and ‘Where is God When it Hurts’ where a God send! I am disappointed as I come to the end of your books, but I’ve also benefited from authors you speak about such as CS Lewis and Jurgen Moltmann…. Thanks for taking me to a deeper understanding of my faith, who God is and who I am.
I now work in men’s residential Christian Rehabilitation center in Scotland (see website address). We help young men from addictive backgrounds with life controlling issues. It would be great to receive some of your books to add to our library. I really think they could help the boys as much as they have helped me. The boys would be able to read your books in their quiet times and in their class times. Any teaching manuals would also be great. Would it be possible to receive a donation?
Thanks again, I look forward to your new work.
Dave O’Donnell
Mr Yancey
I recently attended a Young Life camp for military families at Trail West in May of this year. Our guest speaker was John Haddad who often shared excerpts of your book, “Reaching for the Invisible God.” He also shared that you were gracious enough to provide each family with a copy of the book. Thank you as this would probably not be a book I would have picked up and read on my own but I was intrigued after the event. The good news is I finally got around to reading and finishing the book and I have become a huge fan.
Usually I pick up a book and try to finish it in about a week or two. This one took me about a month and a half. I would read a chapter every couple days and think about what I had read. I had to really sit there and dwell on many of the issues you presented. I love the fact that you included many of your own thoughts but included so many references to others. Thank you for taking your time writing this book and share your journey I could tell that you put considerable work and time into it.
There were several parts that stood out to me that I could relate to. I wanted to share a few of those excerpts. On page 15 a man from Iowa said, “I know there is a God: I believe he exists, I just don’t know what to believe of him.” These words rang true with me as I wonder if God set the world in motion and then decided to step away. On page 119 the words discussion of parenthood helped to define my purpose more clearly and keep me focused. I have two boys and a daughter who are in their early teens. As we struggle with keeping our children safe we also want to help them grow this sentence really reinforced my purpose. “The goal of parenthood is not to produce clones who replicate their parents, rather to produce mature adults who make their own choices.” Finally you end the book with a statement that I had to reflect on, “I have no problem believing God is good. My question is, more, what good is he?
I face a daily struggle in my faith and walk. I see things that only a true God can do but revert back to doubt and question his role when things go bad. I wonder if God is still really there. Thank you for sharing your heart, your struggles, the struggles of others and your faith. It was an enlightening and refreshing experience to read this book. Thank you again for donating this book as this gift was a blessing to me, my family and the military community. There is so much more I could share but I will wait until another time. I am looking forward to reading more of your books in the future.
Aaron Hutmacher
Dear Mr. Yancey: I attended the 1995 “Attention Makes Infinity” writing workshop (poetry, with Paul Mariani) at Glen Eyrie in Colorado Springs, and heard you speak about the existential nature of Ecclesiastes–impressive, and I still have the VHS tape of that evening. I’ve just read straight through at the library your book Disappointment With God, and bought copies for family members. The chapter “Why God Doesn’t Explain” is to me the most profound. Your philosophical approach has a way of reaching those whose belief systems are vague, cynical, or impeded by discontent with paradox. I consider myself a Mark Twain agnostic atheist after a Lutheran upbringing–or better, feel as though I’ve graduated from church–turning to Buddhism afterward, and most admiring the Unitarians for their inclusiveness. Thank you for your articulate book, which has come the closest to making me re-think my doubts in the whole matter. Susan Stevens
My goodness, that’s now 20 years ago! Good memory. You’re truly open-minded, buying copies of a book for your family members when you’re still trying to work things out for yourself–like all of us. –Philip
Dear Aaron,
Your letter alone makes my decision to donate those books worthwhile. Don’t worry about how long it took you to read my book–it took me much longer to write it!
Actually, I kept going with the question you mention and wrote a book titled What Good Is God? I keep asking those kinds of questions, and it’s encouraging to know that some of my readers do too.
Philip