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.”
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email Joannie: pyasst@aol.com
I am in the early stages of a memoir-like writing project which will engage the topic of faith in the midst of trial. I was struck (positively) by a Luther reference you made in the final pages of “Where is God When It Hurts?”…i.e. that we should live with death always before our eyes [so that] we will not expect to live on earth forever, but will have one foot in the air.” I had never experienced this quote/teaching by Brother Martin and cannot find it in his writings. I greatly appreciate what you have shared through this book and would be further indebted if you would share a source for this particular teaching. Blessings!
There must be a source somewhere, but after 42 years (the book’s original date) and four moves, I doubt seriously that I’ll be able to put my hands on it. Sorry!
Can you recommend a book concerning the errors in the Catholic Church rituals, beliefs, concept of praying to saints, etc.?
Thank you,
Jana Walczuk
No, I really don’t.
Hi, Philip. What’s the status on your personal memoir? Still writing, or planning on writing, that?
Funny you should ask. I just submitted it to a publisher this month, and it should be published in 2021.
February 19, 20
Dear Mr Yancey,
I have only just stumbled upon your beautiful library of books and would like to purchase the paperback version of an earlier book, “The Question That Never Goes Away: Why?” I have checked all book sellers (Christianbook.com; Barnes & Noble; and Amazon but could not find it.
When I tried ordering from Amazon, the provider says there are several ‘used’ copies; however, when you click on this tab, you are re-directed to a similar book, “The Question That Never Goes Away: What is God Up to in a World of such Tragedy and Pain?
Any suggestions?
As a graduate counsellor in training; I know that these writings will sustain my faith in God and assist me in being present with those who have given me the privilege to be with them in their deep suffering.
God be with You,
Angela (Alberta, Canada)
Angela, I see your confusion. The US and Canada have only a hardback version, which you can get for about the same price as the paperback, which is only published in the U.K. I’m not sure if you can order a U.K. edition from Canada. The content of both the US hardback and the UK paperback is the same. I’d stick with the hardback, available new for $13.21 US.
Hi Philip,
I’m proud and thankful to say “I knew you when” as I have watched, read and listened through all these years . You have been honest and real and thoughtful as well as sensitive and encouraging in your writing and your speech as I have heard you on the radio. It seems that God has blessed you much and used you for His glory. May He continue to bless you.
Your friend (from high school years and YFC,
Judy
How well I remember, Judy!