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.”
To contact Philip,
make booking inquiries,
or request blog subscription,
email Joannie: pyasst@aol.com
One more, final question came from the audience on my last night in Newtown, and it was the one I most did not want to hear: “Will God protect my child?” I stayed silent for what seemed like minutes. More than anything I wanted to answer with authority, “Yes! Of course God will protect you. Let me read you some promises from the Bible.” I knew, though, that behind me on the same platform twenty-six candles were flickering in memory of victims, proof that we have no immunity from the effects of a broken planet. My mind raced back to Japan, where I heard from parents who had lost their children to a tsunami in a middle school, and forward to that very morning when I heard from parents who had lost theirs to a shooter in an elementary school. At last I said, “No, I’m sorry, I can’t promise that.” None of us is exempt. We all die, some old, some tragically young. God provides support and solidarity, yes, but not protection—at least not the kind of protection we desperately long for. On this cursed planet, even God suffered the loss of a Son. Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away
Dear Mr. Yancey:
My husband of 57 years passed away on January 25, 2019. I resumed teaching our adult Sunday School class after about six-weeks of experiencing the terror of losing his loving companionship. Our study, “Prayer, Does It Make Any Difference” has turned out to be a great faith builder for me and probably the most helpful (to my understanding of God) than any of your other books. Aside from the necessity of weekly preparation (I develop and e-mail or snail mail questions to help with the class’s preparation and our discussion), sharing your profound thoughts and detailed research had broadened my life-long experience of faith in the Almighty. At age 83, you can understand the length of my stubborn quest. Upon completion of your books, I have always thought that I must write and tell you what a great encouragement they have been to me personally. Today is finally that day. Thank you for the research and utter sincerity with which you present the Truth we all need. I treasure it. The idol of my twin sister is Patrick Mahomes, quarterback of the Kansas City Chiefs, but I have announced with assurance and pride that my idol is Philip Yancey. This is just to thank you for your conscientious and deep-seated effort to share the faith and love “that will not let us go.” God keep you publishing and writing and safe in the palm of His hands.
Gulp, I’m uncomfortable being compared with Patrick Mahomes and really uncomfortable being idolized. But I understand your intent, and am glad you waited so long to bless me with your kind and generous words. No retirement in my sights! –Philip
Dear Philip Yancey ,
Greetings in the Christ name! I am Munir Masih from Pakistan. Thank you so much for writing wonderful books for Biblical literature readers. I suggest you to translate your material into Urdu language too. Here in Pakistan there are millions of Christians who needs to read biblical material but most of them were not able to go to English medium schools because Christians in Pakistan are poor. So they are not able to reach and write English. They can only read Urdu language. Here is my email address.
Have a blessed time.
My wife and I tried to visit Pakistan last fall and our visas were denied by the government! Books are a good alternative. Do you know any Pakistani Christian publishers I could try?
Dear Brother Philip,
Greetings in the Christ name!
Just one sentence. Please translate your books into Urdu (Pakistani) language.
God bless you