Rumors of Another World: What on Earth Are We Missing? [Hardcover]

Philip Yancey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 19, 2003

What on earth are we missing? Philip Yancey believes we are missing the supernatural hidden in everyday life. In Rumors of Another World, Yancey investigates the natural world and discovers the supernatural hiding in plain view. He grapples with why God made the world and what our role truly is, and seeks to answer the question, 'How do I live in the natural world while expressing the values of the supernatural?' Philip writes, 'I have come to understand faith as the highest form of integrated encounter. Faith puts together, assembles, re-orders, accepting the entire world as God's handiwork. We live among clues, like rescuers sifting through pieces of stained glass shattered by a bomb, and only with a blueprint or some memory of original design can we begin to connect the shards, to assemble them into a pattern that makes sense of our world. 'Nature and supernature are not two separate worlds, but different expressions of the same reality. To encounter the world as a whole, we need a more supernatural awareness of the natural world.' Yancey invites readers to join him on a journey of discovery. He challenges us to tune into 'rumors of another world,' and connect the seen with the unseen. He promises that the grace-filled result will be a life of beauty, purpose, freedom, and faith.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a work that is startling and original, Yancey (What's So Amazing About Grace?; The Jesus I Never Knew) writes for people on the "borderlands" of Christian faith: those who may have been scarred by bad church experiences, or those who simply have more doubts and questions than they have faith. Most people, he says, perceive "rumors of another world" while inhabiting this one; they long for something more, and yearn for belief in God's transcendence. We substitute other things for God in order to fill this void. (In a chapter that by itself is worth the price of admission, Yancey claims that our culture's fascination with sex stems from the fact that sex is one of the only transcendent, mysterious experiences remaining in the contemporary West.) The quality of Yancey's writing-and his thinking-are simply superb. He is fond of modern literary giants like Simone Weil, Virginia Woolf and Evelyn Waugh and is apt to defer to the insights of 20th-century poets such as T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden. He also draws from his understanding of God-in-nature (shades of Annie Dillard here) and from his travels all over the world, using Tasmanian sheep to illustrate a point about human freedom and Costa Rican leatherback turtles to demonstrate "the mixed messages in nature." One particularly powerful chapter discusses the thorny-and unpopular-topics of guilt and repentance. Yancey, one of the Christian market's best writers, shows a marvelous ability to speak to the world outside that market.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

'There are so very many who long in their hearts for the spiritual and the eternal, yet have been disappointed by what most churches and organized religions have to say and offer. This book will bring you past the disappointments into the midst of hope, meaning and discovery of the God who truly does exist in the unseen world.' -- Dan Kimball

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan (August 19, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310252172
• ISBN-13: 978-0310252177
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #348,561 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I worked for 10 years as an Editor and then Publisher for Campus Life magazine. There I learned journalistic skills (there's no tougher audience than teenagers), but every year it seemed I wrote fewer and fewer words. In 1980 my wife Janet and I moved to downtown Chicago where I began a career as a freelance writer. (She has worked as a social worker and hospice chaplain--which gives me plenty of material to write about!) We lived there until 1992, when we moved to the foothills of Colorado. I've written around 20 books, most of them still in print, thankfully. Three of them I coauthored with Dr. Paul Brand, who influenced me more than any single person. My own favorites are "Soul Survivor" and "Reaching for the Invisible God" because both of them forced me to dig deep and get personal. I'm a pilgrim, still "in recovery" from a bad church upbringing, searching for a faith that makes its followers larger and not smaller. I feel overwhelming gratitude that I can make a living writing about the questions that interest me.

Please visit my website at www.philipyancey.com for more information, essays, events, travel notes, and a blog.

There is also an official Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/PhilipYancey?v=wall

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Yancey meanders casually before delivering yet again., February 2, 2004

By 

Michael Erisman (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rumors of Another World: What on Earth Are We Missing? (Hardcover)

Reading a Yancey book is always an enjoyable experience for me, because of the conversational tones and quiet and unassuming, yet consistently convicting, insights he reveals. This time around my first impression was that he had missed the mark, a follow up read to finish the book months later gave me an entirely different perspective.

I was originally not impressed with the first several chapters, because while it was insightful as always, it was missing the emotional connection of his previous works, and I felt as though I had "heard this all before". The premise is his delve into the dichotomy of the two worlds Christians live in: one the physical world, a world full of desires, and fleeting and ultimately unimportant wants, and the other a spiritual world where we place our sights on things of immeasurable value from an eternal perspective. Obviously, this is not a new topic, but he looks closely in his usual unique perspective, at the various ways the things we encounter everyday reflect this dichotomy. While interesting, it didn't hit on any emotional cylinders for me, and so I put the book down and moved on without finishing.

Months later, after unpacking from a move, I found the book, and threw it my suitcase to finish on a plane. I picked it up in Chapter 12, where he looks into the life of the famous "Elephant Man". So powerful is the imagery and the contrast between the grotesque outward appearance and horrific treatment he endured and the rich, simple, and deeply loving personality of this man, that the message hit home. How do we "see" that which is real, behind or between the exterior illusions? From then on the book hit wonderful chords and sparked yet again the wonder and soul inspiring visionary impact Yancey is known for.

I quickly read the book again, and the pieces came together. Like all of his work, Yancey creates emotional imagery by juxtaposing a variety of source material and overlaying it on a theme. One powerful illustration was how he feels when returning to "home" after a trip out in the wilderness or to a foreign exotic location: "The first day back, modern culture betrays itself as a self-evident lie, a grotesque parody of the day to day life I know. The next day my reactions moderate. A few days later I am breathing the air of lust, consumerism, selfishness and ambition, and it seems normal". This is a wonderful glimpse at the way the current world obscures the spiritual.

Yancey delivers yet again. Highly recommended, even if you have to start with chapter 12 as I did to get to the heart of the issue. Keep writing Phillip, but perhaps look closer at editing, your work is too good to be discarded by too casual an entrance to such an important subject.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Believe the Rumors, March 5, 2004

By 

Eric Wilson "novelist" (Nashville, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Rumors of Another World: What on Earth Are We Missing? (Hardcover)

In a world full of lust and greed, in a culture fed by media ideals, life seems to be more hurried and confusing. Shouldn't it be the other way around? Shouldn't technology relieve our load? Shouldn't tolerance eradicate war and conflict?

Yancey refuses to back away from life's tough issues. Tackling them from an intellectual perspective, he doesn't offer easy answers. Yancey writes clearly and with well-managed words. He pulls back the curtain to reveal his own weaknesses and struggles. Along the way, he tunes our ears to the hints and rumors of a world to come. He puts thing in perspective. Pointing to the very restlessness of man's soul, Yancey offers hope in the belief of a second reality, a spiritual reality. He suggests that we are caught in a tension between two worlds--the temporal and eternal.

I'm impressed by Yancey's usage of historical snippets and recent research to turn up the volume of these spiritual rumors. Like C.S. Lewis before him, Yancey helps us face the evidence of a God who has created us with a purpose and a destination. Mere Christianity is all about learning to see how this life coincides with the one to come. After reading Yancey, I'm inclined to believe the rumors.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yancey has the power to transform, October 11, 2003

By 

Merri Ferrell "M. Ferrell" (Northport, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rumors of Another World: What on Earth Are We Missing? (Hardcover)

Philip Yancey has been one of my favorite writers for many years. As I write that sentence, I realize it does not express a fraction of what I mean or feel when describing the profound effect his writings have had on my life. There are many writers who have shaped my intellectual life-literary critics, poets, historians, but Yancey has changed my life. As a Christian who has never found a church or community to share and worship with (most I have encountered have placed a greater emphasis on "family values" and as a single person, I disappear or am viewed with suspicion), I have stumbled along with my faith in relative isolation. And a profession of faith to the general population can precipitate an array of responses, most of which are incredulous. But as my life has moved along, punctuated more recently with great sorrow and profound disappointment, I find a special wisdom in Yancey's work. At a time when I was at a terrible crossroads professionally, Yancey's writing led me to understand and absorb the miracle of forgiving enemies. And with Rumors of Another World, I found myself beginning to understand the degree to which I belonged to God, the beauty and grace that is abundant, the balance between gratitude and recognition of the source of Good and Beauty, without converting those feelings to idolatry. And I came to understand that I had compartmentalized parts of my life I wanted to remain unchanged, leaving little leeway for the "Father's Mansions" to be built in the framework of my soul.

Philip Yancey is a writer who exposes much of his personal inner workings, including his struggles. This may be a common technique of secular writers, but not among most Christian writers who seem to profess instant answers to their prayers and all of their problems solved as a result of their belief. But what of the believer who still experiences lonliness or pain? The struggles and failures Yancey describe mirror my own, and as his faith is tested but emerges afresh, my experience as a reader is parallel. I have come to know (and to pursue) his favorite writers (Tolstoy, St. Augustine, Annie Dillard, Simone Weil) people who have made a difference by example (Martin Luther King, Dr. Paul Brand) just as I have come to know his biography (growing up in a fundamentalist church in racist Atlanta, but rediscovering faith through a careful study of Jesus). He confesses his doubts and discontent. Thankfully, Yancey does not exegete a Jesus who guarantees prosperity or a jingoistic vision of Norman Rockwell's America. In his writings, I see compassion, mercy, forgiveness and love demonstrated in the life of Christ and His teachings, the foundation of Christianity.

An amazing thing happens towards the end of all of Yancey's books, and Rumors of Another World is no exception. As Yancey reaches his epiphany, the message behind pain, the miracle of forgiveness, the heartbreaking love behind grace and the presence of God in the world as a hint of the eternal kingdom, his (Yancey's)revelation becomes my own, and I feel transformed. I close the book and know I am changed, and will carry the message forward. At this moment, I feel what is referred to as "the invisible church," whereby we are joined together as the body of Christ.

Rumors of Another World is well written, clear and significant. Unlike so many spiritual writings which promise healing, success and prosperity, this book has the quiet truth that Yancey captures so beautifully and so consistently in his books. I encourage everyone to read this book.