Blog | Page 12 of 40 | Philip Yancey

A Time to Fear

February 2021

COVID-19 is hardly the first pandemic to strike fear across the world. In the 17th century, the Black Death (bubonic plague) swept across Europe in waves. One of England’s greatest writers, John Donne, fell ill while serving as the dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Though desperately wanting to bring comfort to his terrified city, Donne instead found himself confined to bed. His diagnosis bleak, he began a journal of his thoughts and emotions as he faced near-certain death. Struck by ...

Talking with the Other Side

January 2021

I recently listened to a TED talk in which the speaker asked members of the audience, “Raise your hand if you have a loved one, neighbor, or friend who in the last election cast a vote that you can’t possibly comprehend.” Everyone raised their hands. Next he asked, “Raise your hand if you still have a cordial relationship with that person.” Almost everyone again raised a hand. What we do instinctively with those we care about, we are failing to ...

Disturbing the Universe

December 2020

Unlike most people, I do not feel much Dickensian nostalgia at Christmastime. The holiday fell just a few days after my father died early in my childhood, and all my memories of the season are darkened by the shadow of that sadness. For this reason, perhaps, I am rarely stirred by the sight of manger scenes and tinseled trees. Yet, more and more, Christmas has enlarged in meaning for me, primarily as an answer to my doubts, as evidence of the ...

A Melancholy Thanksgiving

November 2020

I’ve been working on a modern Devotions, which he wrote in 1623 during a bubonic plague outbreak. One-third of London’s residents would die, and in November Donne himself, the Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral, fell ill. His journal of illness captures the melancholy mood of that time, not so different from what we experience in 2020. In , the great poet and pastor searches for some shred of hope, some reason for gratitude. Ah, now I hear a different ringing ...

Showing Us Another Way

October 2020

Again and again this year, scenes of racial injustice have played out before our eyes. African Americans insist that such incidents are nothing new; the difference is that now iPhones and body cameras record them for the world to see. Tragically, some of the resulting protests have led to violence. In a year marked by division and hostility, I find myself going back to an event from 2015 that played out in Charleston, South Carolina. One warm evening a young ...

Blog Posts

A Time to Fear

Talking with the Other Side

Disturbing the Universe

A Melancholy Thanksgiving

Showing Us Another Way