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.”
Dear Mr. Yancey,
For a while I have been wanting to send you a message – and yesterday, I stumbled across a video featuring a talk of yours in Hong Kong (“True Happiness?”), prompting me to send you a note! The reason is that you cite Switzerland and Iceland as the (supposed) leaders in world happiness (as a function of the ranking composition – probably all due to wealth, health and public infrastructure…), but you not perceiving the facial expressions and tone of the voice of those people as particularly happy when you speak there.
Well, here is a feedback of a very happy inhabitant of those countries. I wish in my heart that I would have had a chance to see you talk when you visited here. Because your books and the Godly wisdom you offer through your balanced, honest reflections have been strengthening not only my faith, but also the lives of many friends (some going through painful losses, the pain of not having children, losing loved ones, serious depressions, etc.). My wife and I often use your books as gifts when we talk to people in need of encouragement or a different bigger picture offered than the one we find in tacky church messages or half-hearted “encouragement” by fellow Christians. Your books are thus offering great comfort to friends in need, family and as part of ministries we are involved in, in part outreach to prostitutes (offering prayer and an open ear, rather than guilt and condemnation).
I thank you for your work and would cherish the opportunity to meet you in person. Until then, I feel connected to you “in Him” and I wish you and your family all the best. We look forward to more wonderful books.
With love, Daoud
Ps. I’ll make sure to get a front-row seat when you speak here, and to throw in some “hurra’s” and “Amen’s” 🙂
I was having issues downloading “Where is God When it Hurts” and had to call Amazon. While the customer support person was helping me he asked several questions about the book. I was excited to share with him and recommend your books to him. Please pray for Bret.
Your books have been so valuable to our family; especially my husband who has read some over again.
Thank you!
Great story! And customer support, tech support, and telephone solicitors are some people in need of kindness and grace–they deal with ornery people all day long. –Philip
You make me want to return to Switzerland right away! And actually, I’m not very expressive facially myself, so I’m glad that when I speak, not everyone in the audience responds like me. –Philip
Read your book Disappointed with GOD. Hmm. I am trying to put across (without causing stress to your followers) about how this book is, well, to be blunt – not touching my heart strings. Without going into too much detail, I cannot help but think that GOD does not care for everyone, only a few: David HE loved. Saul, well… (I am expecting the religious here to go and spew scripture in my face by saying this and the reasons el al). The issue here is that crying out to GOD yields no results at all. Bear in mind that I have read your book (combination of two books in one – The Jesus I never knew was the first part). I cannot recall the name of your friend that visited you who lost his fiance etc.
My story could be parallel to his (except for the fiance bit). There comes a point where you say “*(^&*” it. I have called, cried and prayed over and over again and still nothing has happened. I have spoken to various pastors, councellors etc and they all spew the same garbage and meaningless words. The best part is that they all say “Have faith” or “GOD has a plan” …… I know the scriptures and the scriptures are real in my head, not my heart (religious folks in 3..2..1..) How many times does a person have to ask GOD for a relationship and … nothing. Not a d**n thing. So, at the end of the day, blaming GOD (who wants to be loved but does not partake in a two-way conversation) seems plausable. God does not give up on you, people say. Hmm, well, I beg to differ. Only HIS select few will make it into Heaven. He has picked those whom HE wants. As for the rest…
Although I did not find that the book helped me at all, I have to applaud you on your writing style.
Kind regards from Cape Town, South Africa (and you would be amazed at how many people in the USA do not know where that is situated)
Dmitri