Thoughts on Phillip Yancey (appreciation thread)

[ocu2fan]

Hi everyone,

Phillip Yancey has recently become my favorite author ever. He surpasses C.S. Lewis only because I find him easier to read and not quite as dense. That is not meant to take away from Lewis however, just a personal preference.

I am reading Reaching Out to the Invisible God and read What's So Amazing About Grace just a few months ago. What's So Amazing About Grace is hands down the best book I have ever read. Please do yourself a favor and read it. Anyway, I wanted to say how much this man has impacted my spiritual life by being honest, straightforward and relatable unlike so many "superman" Christian writers.

Coincidentally, I found out about Mr. Yancey by reading about Bono, another man who has influenced my spiritual life in a big way. So thank you Phillip Yancey, and for that matter, Bono.

 

[Truly]

I was going to start a thread like this too

Philip Yancey is my favourite author ever and I've only read one of his books -"What's so amazing about grace." It's the best book I've ever read. I'm another person who only found out about Yancey through Bono, and I'm so glad I did. I just ordered "Soul Survivor" the other day, and it should be arriving any day now. Can't wait!

I can't really compare him to other christian authors, becuase CS Lewis is the only one I've read anything by - and only one book at that. I love Yancey's writing style though, and he's made such a huge impact on me. I really cannot stress enough how much WSAAG has altered my thoughts on life. Everyone should read this book! I cannot reccomend it enough!

Originally posted by sulawesigirl4:
He has this ability to be brutally honest but very hopeful. He doesn't pretend to have answers he doesn't, nor does he over-trivialize the complicated stuff

I totally agree with you! He's an amazing author!

 

[truecoloursfly]

The two most influential books I read last year came to my attention via U2: Rushdie's The Ground Beneath Her Feet and What's So Amazing About Grace. ach, I wish I had Yancey's book in front of me right now, I'd write reams! (Maybe it's just as well I don't...)
I spoke to a good friend last night who's reading a lot, struggling a lot, and very cranky about fundamentalism right now; she said she was a little leery of Yancey for the moment because of his conservative background (with Christianity Today magazine). As I told her: I expected to be pissed off with him every couple of pages. And every single time, he subverted his own cliches, grappled instead with human realities much deeper than any easy judgements his colleagues might make. Among the most illuminating of his assertions was that the "conservative" Christian community, the Christian Right as it's come to be known, has become too interested in influence... in effect, in power. Not in the self-inflating sense, necessarily, but rather in a legislative approach to collective behaviour modification. --Having judged societal behaviour as needing modification. Which may or may not be so, but not entirely by the state!
In short, Yancey claims, politicking is not the church's business. MAN, did I need somebody to say that! (Although, I am entirely supportive of, and inspired by, Latin American liberation theology... founded on human rights, if I understand correctly. But that's another discussion.

) I look forward to reading his other books.
Actually, What's So Amazing... frequently made me weepy. Not sure why, except possibly because of his grasp of spiritual malnourishment. His opening two pages -- about the woman who'd been a hooker -- grabbed my imagination and will never let go. (Yes, go to the bookstore just to read those two pages. Go ahead, try NOT to march the book to the cash register after that and take it home. -- And then check in here!)

Having jumped up and down at a lot of Eugene Peterson's translations, I'll take whatever else Bono's got in his book club.

namaste,
Deb D



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I wanna walk with you along an unapproved road

the greatest frontman in the world - by truecoloursfly: http://www.atu2.com/news/article.src?ID=1575

 

[sulawesigirl4]

awesome thread. I was going to post something similar, but just hadn't gotten around to it.

I've read a good deal of Mr. Yancey's writing and must say that he is one of the few authors that has convinced me to stick around and see if Christianity really CAN be real and that it can be meaningful. He has this ability to be brutally honest but very hopeful. He doesn't pretend to have answers he doesn't, nor does he over-trivialize the complicated stuff.

I received his latest book, Soul Survivor, for Christmas and it's really been an inspiration to me. Indeed, it's led me to some new choices in literature (Tolstoy and Dostoevsky for one) and broadened my horizons.

-sula

 

[oktobergirl]

I am reading "What So Amazing..." right now. It is an amazing book.

That's my report so far.

I've been off the board for a while but I'm back...