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.”
Thank you for calling out evangelical Christians supporting Mr Trump. In contrast when you hear Sec Clinton talk about her faith…it barely gets mentioned….her work for women and children world-wide….her daughter Chelsea has written a good book for teens about service and groups that help others…Mr trump is full of himself and wealth and WINNING….at any cost! Thank you for your life and your writing!
I just read your comments about Donald Trump. Sorry I had never heard of you before. It makes for such a refreshing change to hear common sense spoken, rather than political diatribe. Being fairly new to the faith, although old in years, I have a hard time reconciling the fact that Jesus kingdom is not of this world, that we are not to be of the world (or in the world, I can never remember which word means which status) and yet politics would seem to epitomize being of the world. I’ve read the bible a couple of times now and don’t remember Jesus seeking to change any Roman laws. He may not have agreed with them, but He never argued for armed insurrection – or even lobbying your Roman Senator. It is sad to see churches fomenting fear amongst their members to scare them into voting one way or the other. Jesus tells us not to fear. My pastor gave a sermon on that, about how we who are in the love of God have nothing to fear – and two sentences later says he “fears” the US government will throw him in prison for not performing a same sex marriage. But I guess it keeps his flock coming back each week.
Anyway, just wanted to write to thank you for a breath of fresh air
Dear Mr. Yancey: I write this, I am praying, in a most respectful manner. I have read your books over the years and gained from them. Today I find out that you have endorsed the democratic platform and candidate, and am wondering what I had missed when reading your writings formerly. I am so disappointed. I will pray for you.
I love your books. In your book, “Disappointment with God”, you quote Moltmann on page 104: “God weeps with us so that we may one day laugh with him.” I love this quote, but I cannot find it anywhere in any of Moltmann’s books or articles. Can you tell me where you found this? (You do not give the citation) Thanks. BTW: Your book “What’s So Amazing About Grace?” changed my life.
An article in ” CP politics” has you wondering about voting for Donald Trump for pres. i understand your argument against that vote but what is the alternative? When there are only two candidates that are miles ahead of the rest of the pack, it would appear to me to be a waste of vote to vote for anyone other then Trump.
Your thoughts please .
dave