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.”
Strangely, I find no record of an Italian translation. Foreign rights are handled by the publishers, and no Italian publishers have contracted for it, sorry. –Philip
I thank you for the spirit of your letter, Dr. Heater. As the husband of a missionary daughter, I agree with you about Barbara Kingsolver’s book, and we fully share admiration for Rich Mouw and his generous spirit. I’m sorry I came across to you as bitter and cynical. I have had open and helpful conversations with the leadership of the school I attended and we are on most excellent terms, so I haven’t gone “behind their backs.” More, I don’t use the name of that school because I’m aware that some of what I write might hurt them. I try to write honestly about my experiences, and you should know that just because I tell a scene does not mean I approve of it: for example, I agree with you about my brother’s cynical attitude and didn’t write that scene in an approving way. What I’ve learned, though, is that the more specific and detailed I write, it summons up responses in others who had parallel experiences, though not the same. As you know, Dr. Heater, there are many, many people out there who were damaged by the church or its institutions. I hear from Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists, Catholics, and others who had experiences quite unlike mine yet can identify with some of the excesses I experienced. I guess I “tilt” in their favor because that is my background, and also my calling–to reach those wounded by the church. As you say, some who find this offensive don’t read my writings at all. (As to your friend, I attended one more moderate church in Atlanta but most of my “toxic” memories are of another, smaller and more fundamentalist church–the two are sometimes confused, as again I do not use their names.) You are in the middle, appreciating some parts but not others. I will try to learn from your comments, and thank you for doing the biblical and honorable thing by writing me directly. I’m sorry you waited so long to mail that letter! –Philip
I understand. You are caught between the Asian qualities of loyalty and reticence and the U.S. qualities of individualism and consumerism. That’s quite a balance to keep! I’m far from a “church hopper” myself. Sometimes we learn most by staying with a group that may not be our first preference. Your comment shows a lot of maturity, even though to you it may feel confusing. Don’t give up. –Philip
Sorry, I don’t know Polish. I’m just repeating what the Polish nanny said who looked at my book and said it translates “Disappointment with Mold.” –Philip
Hi Phil,
We first met at a YFC Director’s certification course in 1972 in Rockford, IL. You, Milt Richards, Tim Stafford and Ron Hutchcraft were leading the sessions. I served as EX Dir of Hampstead YFC in MD. If I recall correctly, I wrote a paper on the kingdom of God which received positive feedback. Over the years I have continued in my studies and now serve as Senior Research Professor of Biblical Exegesis atCriswell College (Dallas, Tx). I have written two books that might be of interest to you: 1) Subversive Meals, an analysis of the Lord’s Supper under Roman domination, and 2) Heaven on Earth: Experiencing the Kingdom of God in the Here and Now, which picks up where Dallas Willard left off.
Each has received good reviews from people who count. Please let me know if you would like copies for review. You can check both out on Amazon.
My upcoming book is titled “Caesar and the Sacraments.”
Great to touch base with you. I have followed your ministry over the years.
Alan Streett