What's So Amazing About Grace?

Yancey's just slightly ahead of his time. In 1997 he realizes there's a sickness at the heart of American Fundamentalism's soul, even if he misdiagnoses a vicious pneumonia as a cold. Unlike Gabe Lyons (unChristian) writing several years later, Yancey's honest enough to know that what the cult needs is more than a better PR job. He is even honest enough to allow that Fundamentalism's approach to belief may not be perfect, a difficult assertion for a member of a movement that values obedience to authority above all else to make. He sees so clearly... up to a point, and then, Yancey goes completely blind again. He's happy to question how religious leaders have used and abused God language, happy to note some of the missteps of show more Fundamentalism, but utterly unable to even begin to question the rotted core of Fundamentalist belief. Yancey, for example, can understand that a gay friend is hurt by self righteous Fundamentalists telling him he's going to hell and his sins are unforgivable. Still Yancey will not even for a nanosecond allow himself to wonder if maybe Fundamentalism is known by its fruits, and if its fruits are hatred and bigotry it might be time to pause and reflect. Yancey is quick to tell us that ultimately, he too, has to consign his friend to hell. Realizing that the word "love" has become diminished and exhausted through misuse and overuse, Yancey cleverly suggests that faith be reviewed using the relatively unadulterated word "grace." If only he, or some other Fundamentalist, would go one step further and examine their own beliefs in a new light instead of simply crafting a convenient, non-threatening, definition of grace that reinforces a misguided and unhaopoy set of religious ideas. show less

This isn't the kind of book that I'd normally read, but I was struggling with forgiveness and thought I'd give it a try. I'm glad I did. Yancey not only helps to explain what exactly grace means in a Biblical sense, but also why so many Christians seem to be living in a state of what he terms ungrace. Through numerous examples from his own life as well as anecdotes drawn from the lives of ordinary people and nations, Yancey gives us a better idea about what it might look like to practice grace in an every day way. Yancey also doesn't neglect to mention his own struggles with the concept of grace and the idea of extending forgiveness to those people who hurt us as well as those who we hurt. Overall, I thought that the concepts contained show more in this book were clearly illustrated and a call to people to live with ever greater grace in their daily lives. show less

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 show more clear, articulate, informed and very readable author. show less

This book was more enjoyable than that of Dr. Schaeffer. This Philip Yancey tells us in a more hospitable way that Grace is the way to know God. Which is really a nice thought. I found the stories to be very heartwarming and ... well, not exactly relatable, but understandable.

Throughout he tells stories of his growing up in a Christian Fundamentalist sect and being against desegregation and stuff, but that didn't really bother me, since I can understand the culture of the time. Stuff with people hating others really bothers him, and he seems like an interesting person to meet overall. He did meet with President Bill Clinton, and he received horrible letters from so-called Christians about the article he wrote about it in response. This show more was mostly because of Clinton's stance on abortion and homosexuality. I was far too young to care during Clinton's administration so I kind of forgot all of that.

Yancey also talks about how living a life of grace automatically makes you a better person, since if you love God, you will go and want to please him or something. All in all, this book was rather thought provoking and pretty well written. It didn't change my mind, but it did remind me of some things from back when I was a child. I mean, this Philip Yancey also seems to believe that Morality stems from God, so I don't really know what to say to that.

Four out of five stars from me, and I hope to read something like it again. show less

This is a quite amazing book, one I would recommend to all Christians whatever their background, and to anyone who's interested in knowing about Christianity, or indeed anyone who's been hurt by Christians.

The book's been criticised by fundamentalists; not surprisingly perhaps since Yancey grew up fundamentalist - and racist - himself. But now he accepts that God is found in many places and people, and can be part of all denominations whether Protestant, Orthodox or Catholic. His writing makes such intuitive sense, and is so well expressed, that I find it hard to see how anyone could disagree with it. This is how the church should be, and it's a massive challenge for the 21st century where Christianity is more often associated with show more anger and critisism than with compassion and grace.

Re-read eight years later, and still found it powerful, even if a little over-political in places. show less

In this book, Philip Yancey explores the concept of grace. He does a very good job and this book brought me to tears. It brought me back to my personal reckoning with grace was after see Les Miserables and Yancey discusses this in the book. Yancey discusses how forgiving the guilty really frees the forgiver. So true.

Thought-provoking. I don't agree with everything he said. The author's recent revelation of adultery taints things a bit. But there's some thought-provoking stuff to chew on in this book.