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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.  Robertgreaves | Dec 5, 2009 |  [back cover] We speak of grace often, but do we understand it? More important, do we truly believe in it and do our lives proclaim it as powerfully as our words? In his most personal book yet, the best-selling author of "The Jesus I Never Knew" takes a probing look at grace: what it looks like, what it doesn't look like, and why only Christians an and must reveal the grace the world is searching for. UnivMenno | Nov 15, 2009 | what God's grace means for practical living. d2suarez | Sep 28, 2009 | Substance: excellent discussion of grace, forgiveness, charity, etc. Yancey laments the "gracelessness" of too many evangelical Christians (and others) still fixated on the "letter of the law" than on the spirit of the gospel. I think he unfairly targets evangelicals, but he was brought up in one of the more virulent, racist, bigoted congregations so he has some right to talk. He mentions the demonizing of Christianity by the media simultaneously with the paucity of "graceful" Christians but does not seem to connect the dots: how can we "call to mind" acts of real Christian charity when the main-stream-media relentlessly avoids printing the ones that actually do occur? Politics aside, his gospel points are well-taken. Style: Yancey is a clear, articulate, informed and very readable author. (  )1  librisissimo | Sep 16, 2009 | A real wake-up call for the "modern" church about their place in society and calling as Christians. Yancey's writing is always intelligent and thoughtful whilst still being practical, compassionate and confronting. (  ) coffeebookperfect | Dec 10, 2008 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com (ISBN 0310245656, Paperback)Mention the word "grace" and what immediately comes to mind for most of us is a bagpipe wailing the solemn notes of "Amazing Grace."The grace of which Philip Yancey writes is the freely given and unmerited favor and love of God. This grace seems a remote, almost sentimental concept, without a place in our lives or our society. It is a vague, slippery thing to us, probably because we seem to experience grace so rarely and have managed to leech the word of meaning. But Philip Yancey has set about to rescue grace in his book What's So Amazing About Grace? This grace is the true message of Jesus. All faiths have virtues and creeds and justice and truth, but Jesus speaks merely of receiving the love that God has for us. Accepting it, not earning it or making ourselves worthy of it. And frankly, accepting something we have not earned or are not worthy of is not an easy thing for most of us. In truth, grace is both utterly simple and utterly confounding. Little by little, Yancey guides us into a clearer understanding of grace by using stories, in much the same way Jesus did. We read stories of both grace and ungrace at work in people's lives. Sadly, it is stories of ungrace that are more prevalent today, the current culture wars painful acknowledgments of ungrace in our lives as Christians in this country. Yancey helps us understand that ungrace is that state of being in which self-righteousness and pride are a result of thinking that we have somehow earned God's approval and may now stand in judgment in his behalf. Philip Yancey was awarded the Gold Medallion Christian Book of the Year award for this book in 1998 by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. Readers concurred with this decision, making this book an immediate bestseller. Believers and nonbelievers alike should accept Yancey's challenge to become agents of grace rather than agents of vengeance or judgment or anger. In truth, we are each starving for grace, ready to grasp it tightly. And it is through grace that all other hungers--for justice, for righteousness, for love--are satisfied. Yancey opens his book by telling us that "grace" is the last best word, and in What's So Amazing About Grace?, he proves that he's right. --Patricia Klein (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:55 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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Yancey provides lots of great anecdotes on the way to illustrate his points; some of them moved me to tears. He has a wonderful vision of what the church could and should be, and the realism to know what it all too often is. (