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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I have read several of your books over the years, having just finished “The Bible Jesus Read”. In the last chapter, you mention Revelation 5 which prompted me to listen again to Chris Tomlin’s glorious song “Is He Worthy?”.
Your writing has blessed my life many times over. You have a way of expressing yourself that brings such clarity to my Christian experience. After reading a chapter in one of your books, I have a sense of experiencing the reality of Jesus in my life on a deeper level. All that to say, Philip, that your style of communicating really speaks to me…
Thank You for your commitment to a calling that truly blesses me and, I’m certain, many others as well.
Hello Philip — Jesus Christ came into my life and gave me His life in February, 1980; I was 38-years-old at the time. Sometime during that decade I purchased Disappointment With God, read it, and have been carrying it around from city to city ever since. Just took it down from the shelf and re-read it. So, so helpful, both then and now. And I have a question. Are you still in contact with “Richard” (his book about Job), and if so, can you share if he has resolved his struggle to believe in God? Thank you.
Actually, I talked with “Richard” just last week. He has mellowed a lot, and does believe in God, though not the Christian understanding of reality–more a kind of spiritual humanism. Much progress, and I appreciate your concern. As you know, conversions at the age you mention are rather rare, so I’m sure you have your own story! –Philip
I loved the guest post by David Bannon in the fall. I read his Wounded In Spirit last year. It touched me deeply. I am ready to read it again this year as part of my Advent reading. What a lovely, poignant Advent book. Your Forward is so thoughtful and well done. I share part of Bannon’s tragic story in my own life. I wonder what Bannon now is doing and if there is any way to contact him. (You can email me privately, if you are willing.)
By the way, I have read all your books, I think. Just the other day I was rearranging my bookshelves and was happy to see 6 or 7 of your books all their together. Back in the day, I loved What is so Amazing About Grace. The updated version of Fearfully and Wonderfully was great. I think my favorite of yours is Soul Survivor. It came at a very important time in my life. Thank you for being a good and faithful guide for me along the way.
Dear Mr. Yancey,
Your books on grace are life changing. I am close to publishing first book: A Place for Grace: Find Yours!” There are at least two times I am using quotes from your book “What’s so amazing about Grace?” In that book I read the following story but now cannot find the page number to cite it in my endnotes. I’m curious if you might know what chapter or page it is included in so that I can cite the page number. Here is the story. “Not long after the Korean War, a Korean woman had an affair with an American soldier and became pregnant. He went back to the United States and she never saw him again. She gave birth to a little girl who looked different than the other children. In that culture at that time, that was unacceptable. Many women in that culture would in fact kill their children because they didn’t want them to face rejection. She didn’t do that. She tried to raise her little girl as best she could until the rejection became just too much. She did something that probably none of us could imagine ever doing. She abandoned her little girl to the streets.
This young girl was constantly ridiculed. They called her horrible names. It didn’t take long for this little girl to draw conclusions about herself based on the way that people treated her. For two years she lived on the streets until finally she made her way to an orphanage. Then one day word came that a couple from America was going to adopt a little boy. All the children in the orphanage got excited because at least one little boy was going to have hope that day. This little girl spent the day helping the little boys get ready by cleaning them up, combing their hair, and wondering which one would be adopted by this American couple.
The next day the couple came in. This is what the little girl recalled. She said it was like Goliath had come back to life. “I saw this man with his huge hands lift up each and every baby. I knew he loved every one of them as if they were his own. I saw tears running down his face and I knew if they could, they would’ve taken the whole group of kids home with them.” She said, “Then he saw me out of the corner of his eye. Let me tell you, I was nine years old but I weighed less than 30 pounds. I was a scrawny little thing. I had lice in my hair and boils all over me and scars all over my body. I was not a pretty sight.” She said this man came over to her and he began saying something in English she couldn’t understand and she looked up at him. Then he took his hands and laid them on her face. He was saying, “I want this one. This is the child for me.” THANK YOU FOR TAKING TIME TO LOOK AT THIS
I’m sorry you’ve had to go to all this trouble, but I don’t think this is my story, at least it’s not in What’s So Amazing About Grace. I did a word search using some of the key words from your account, and nothing showed up. Any other ideas? –Philip
Hi David, Philip’s blog assistant here, it was written by Lee Strobel in his book The Case for Grace.
Mr. Yancey,
I was delighted to hear from you this morning. Thank you for your trouble in helping me locate the source of this story. Is it possible it is taken from “Where is God when it Hurts? I apologize for putting you to this much trouble. This is the last story I need to reference and my book will then go to formatting. I read quite a bit so I may have lost memory of where this story originated. If so, is it appropriate to still use it and if so, how would I reference it in the endnotes of the book? Thank you for your time. Your books have been so helpful to me.
I’m afraid it’s not mine, David. I may have read it somewhere too, but I didn’t write it. In your place, I would simply be honest in the endnote, saying that you were unable to track down the original source.