In 1997, when Philip Yancey submitted his manuscript to his publisher, he had serious doubts that his new offering (which followed his popular book, The Jesus I Never Knew) would find an audience. He knew his evangelical readers. In Yancey’s mind, the chapters on a Democrat President (Bill Clinton) and a fellow author who “came out” as gay (Mel White), would not set well - especially when he called for “grace.” To his surprise, What’s So Amazing About Grace became his best-seller. Today, 25 years later, Philip and his publishers agree. The need to apprehend and exhibit grace is greater today than ever in our polarized world. After making some revisions - mainly updates - the book has been released.
Ken welcomes back one of his favorite guests. After reminiscing over some good times together, they talk about the book. Better - they talk about grace. Amazing grace. Yancey shares his growing-up years - the racism that dominated his church, his neighborhood, and his Southern state (Georgia). They talk about his friendship with Bill Clinton, who read his books and regularly met with Philip’s friends, Tony Campolo and Gordon McDonald. They explore his friendship with Mel White, who for years was the ghostwriter for high-profile evangelical leaders: Francis Schaeffer, Billy Graham, Pat Robertson, Oliver North, Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, W.A. Criswell and Jerry Falwell and more. After years of depression, hiding, reparative therapy, and self-loathing, Mel came to terms with his identity. Philip was there; dispensing grace.
Back in the 90’s, PBS’s Bill Moyers produced a documentary - Amazing Grace - that beloved hymn. Yancey was moved by that hour long exploration of the hymn’s universal appeal. Moyers tells the story of the writer, John Newton, a brutal slave trader, who wrote the words: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.” Yancey agrees, Newton was indeed a wretch. By grace, he ultimately became a fervent abolitionist.
That’s what grace can do.
What’s So Amazing About Grace? (Revised and Updated) On Amazon
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It’s the most powerful force in the universe, our only hope for love and forgiveness, and a foretaste of eternal life: amazing, radical, life-changing grace.
Millions of lives have been changed by award-winning author Philip Yancey’s startling exploration of grace at street level. Grace is the one thing the world can’t duplicate, the healing force we need, and the key to transforming a broken world.
REPRISE Philip Yancey's courageous and penetrating new book, his memoir - Where the Light Fell - will be released on October 5. There's a big audience for Philip's story. There are over 100 million claim to have experienced Christian fundamentalism and 25 million more identify as "exvangelicals." Brother Marshall, a musical prodigy, had perfect pitch. Philip's father contracted polio and died when Philip was only 18 months old. Ken notes that Philip's experience in segregationalist fundamentalism is extreme. Paul Van Gorder, Bob Jones, Jr., Lester Maddox all would come to Philip's church. The Prophecy Conferences were an annual event, providing much to fear. Tony Evans came to the church, and was turned away. Philip's mother, a well known Bible teacher, struggled to make ends meet but never quite recovered from her husbands passing. The three Yancey's lived in a mobile home, located in an Atlanta area "trailer park." The Lost Cause narrative permeated church life, but high school opened new perspectives for Philip. He shares bitter-sweet memories of church life. Philip appeared as the Southern preacher Elijah in a high school performance of Inherit the Wind. In Bible College, Philip had a reputation as an intellectual rebel, reading Bertrand Russell and Harvey Cox. Then he met his match, Janet. The parable of the Good Samaritan changed everything. He would later write. What's So Amazing about Grace. George Beverly Shea's song touches Philip. (First aired September 2021)
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Philip Yancey's courageous and penetrating new book, his memoir - Where the Light Fell - will be released on October 5. There's a big audience for Philip's story. There are over 100 million claim to have experienced Christian fundamentalism and 25 million more identify as "exvangelicals." Brother Marshall, a musical prodigy, had perfect pitch. Philip's father contracted polio and died when Philip was only 18 months old. Ken notes that Philip's experience in segregationalist fundamentalism is extreme. Paul Van Gorder, Bob Jones, Jr., Lester Maddox all would come to Philip's church. The Prophecy Conferences were an annual event, providing much to fear. Tony Evans came to the church, and was turned away. Philip's mother, a well known Bible teacher, struggled to make ends meet but never quite recovered from her husbands passing. The three Yancey's lived in a mobile home, located in an Atlanta area "trailer park." The Lost Cause narrative permeated church life, but high school opened new perspectives for Philip. He shares bitter-sweet memories of church life. Philip appeared as the Southern preacher Elijah in a high school performance of Inherit the Wind. In Bible College, Philip had a reputation as an intellectual rebel, reading Bertrand Russell and Harvey Cox. Then he met his match, Janet. The parable of the Good Samaritan changed everything. He would later write. What's So Amazing about Grace. George Beverly Shea's song touches Philip.
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Release Date: October 5, 2021
“One of the world’s finest Christian writers has written his most personal and gripping book. Where the Light Fell is a stunning memoir – beautifully written, transparent and vulnerable, raw and honest, evocative and unforgettable. It is a story of pain and redemption, of shattered lives and healing grace. Yancey’s remarkable ministry of empathy and grace can’t be understood apart from the wounds he sustained during his early life. His gifts have been shaped by his scars. Where the Light Fell is the book Philip Yancey had to write, and the book we needed him to write.”
Peter Wehner, former senior White House advisor; Contributing Writer, The Atlantic and New York Times
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, taking 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.” More recently, he has felt the freedom to explore central issues 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 15 million books in print, published in over 50 languages worldwide.
More Pending
