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.”
Wonderful story, Christina. I’m so glad you filled me in. I’m also glad you’ve started writing. I wish I could offer editorial help, but I’m so far behind on my own deadlines that I have no time for any other projects for the foreseeable future. You might try Writing For Your Life. There are services out there that offer just what you’re asking. –Philip
I understand! The “Writing” area of your site is very helpful as well. I am sorry I didn’t see that before I commented. Good luck on your deadlines! All my best to you.
Dear Philip,
There seems to be an invisible thread that weaves through life, connecting ideas, and making you feel like you’re not alone. For us the writers have included Tim Keller, Ann Voskamp, Leslie Fields, and others. It seems like you’re name keeps popping up as we’ve learned from these folks, so we’ve been reading “What’s so Amazing About Grace”.
Your book has been convicting but freeing. When you reach the dangerous edges of grace, I feel a bit of anger, but I know it’s true. That’s probably how people respond when I do the same thing. And this is where we find ourselves struggling. We get to churches and Bible studies and find ourselves being judged for having no children. We hear all the talk center around homosexuals being the most evil. We here calls to defend Trump (OK, not at our Lutheran and Reformed churches). And I doubt that I am with Christians.
But then, I find myself in a different kind of legalism- I think I’m a better Christian, but no I’m a wretched sinner. We bring up grace at a Bible study and people don’t respond. We bring up the fact that we ALL deserve judgement for our sins, and everyone is quiet. Everyone wants to focus on politics. In Baptist-like circles, everyone wants to focus on end times garbage, or how they were blessed for donating to Jerusalem’s military.
So we find ourselves alone, a lot. When we find churches with decent preaching, we are often judged or find that the church has a strong sub-culture of modern identity and a lack of hospitality and love.
Listening to an online sermon by Chuck Schlie, we heard your “Traverse City Prodigal” story. That’s where I’m from and we moved back here. The story adds to the lovely book by Keller we are using for our book study. I want to thank you for that illustration and for your work, with the Lord’s strength, in saying things that need to be said. Grace and peace.
What a thoughtful, honest expression. May your grace journey never end. –Philip
Thank you so much Philip for sharing your story. I grew up as an adoptee in a Mennonite Brethren Church. We could not dance or go to movies or date girls who did. If one used the Lord’s name in vain they were doomed for eternity. That was the gist of it. Even so I accepted Jesus as my Saviour at about 7 yrs old. I am now going to be 66 yrs old next month. Many years ago I wrote a piece for you. I do not remember now for which publication. Writing is what I’ve always done best.
I still struggle with lack of self-confidence and procrastination when it comes to writing. I will never forget a parent-teacher conference in high school with my English Lit. teacher. He strongly advised my parents to steer me into a writing career.
At any rate your writings never fail to inspire me! If anyone will manage to get a fire going under my butt to get me writing more just reading your writings would do it!
Sincerely,
Ken Wiens
B.A., Mdiv., ThM