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
Hello Mr. Yancey, Can you tell me if A Skeptic’s Guide to Faith is identical to Rumors of Another World–or have you edited and updated it in some way? Thank you.
It’s identical. The publisher changed the title a few years ago–which is probably a mistake in the days of the Internet. Old school, you’d find out about books through your bookstore. Now it’s anybody’s guess.
Dear Philip,
Thank you for all the books, especially the ones relating to the subject of suffering and pain. Have you written any book that specifically address the questions raised in Bart Ehrman’s book titled “God’s Problem – How the Bible fails to answer ….Why we suffer?” Or are there any book by any body else that refutes Bart Ehrman’s claims?
Michael
I have not read that particular book by Bart Ehrman. The books I’ve written on that topic are Where Is God When It Hurts, Disappointment with God, The Question That Never Goes Away, and The Gift of Pain.. I doubt anyone has an answer that would satisfy Ehrman, however. –Philip
Mr. Yancey,
I finished your book Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference on New Year’s Day, 2021. I have been reading books on prayer during my devotional time through 2020 and your’s was my 14th on the subject. I have always been a regular reader of scripture but my goal was to improve my prayer life. I am now beginning to feel guilty as I have been spending more time reading about prayer than actually praying.
I wanted to let you know that I did enjoy your book and found it useful toward reaching my goal. I particularly liked your use of illustrating your points by including the stories and experiences of so many individuals. I also felt such a kindred spirit with you by the various authors you referenced because many of them are ones that I have read over my lifetime and I was surprised that anyone else today would have read some of these. I am thinking of Andrew Murray, Frank Laubach, George Muller, Thomas Kelly, Brigid Herman, and Rosalind Rinker.
Even after reading all these books on prayer there is so much I do not understand about it. But my faith is in God and I will continue to pray, not so much for my wants and petitions, as to grow in knowledge and relationship with God.
Thanks again for your book.
Dave Larkin
You have excellent taste in reading, as shown by that list of authors! I know what you mean about reading more about it than praying… –Philip
Hi Philip, I’m a missionary in Latin America, Biology teacher/school administrator, and have greatly grown through your books. I listen regularly to the BioLogos podcasts, and just listened to this interview with Thomas Jay Oort about his views expressed in his popular book “God Can’t”. I cannot agree with the premise of mutual exclusivity between God’s sovereignty and God’s love. What I’ve learned from scripture, much from your exposition of it, it does not match. The idea is new to me. Have you written anything on this view you could direct me to? Here is the link to the podcast https://biologos.org/podcast-episodes/thomas-jay-oord-uncontrolling-love
Thanks, Matt
I’ll try to listen and then email you. –Philip
Mr Yancey,
I’m originally from Kenya, but now lives in Sydney Australia. I love reading your books- l have most of them-. I came across “The Jesus l never Knew” while trying to settle into my new life in rural Australia. The cultural adjustment coupled with the differences in church life was really hard for me. I struggled with church especially and with what l saw as cultural practice more than church “culture”. I didn’t understand nor accepted ways of doing church here. I didn’t agree with what was tolerated and what was condemned.I remember telling a friend of mine, how l benefited more from listening to doctor Phil than my local pastor. I reclused into this judgemental spiritual superiority bigot who saw heaven for myself and hell for everyone one else. I’m thankful for the Jesus l never knew. It changed my life literally, it opened my eyes to the log in mine and taught me Gods view on all things great and beautiful. I’m thankful for the grace that l learnt from it, and the lesson that Jesus brought that l almost missed: “Between the cross and the empty tomb….there’s hope for each of us…
Gift
You are indeed a Gift: of honesty and humility. You bear God’s stamp.