What Good Is God?: In Search of a Faith That Matters [Hardcover]

Philip Yancey (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 19, 2010

Journalist and spiritual seeker Philip Yancey has always struggled with the most basic questions of the Christian faith. The question he tackles in WHAT GOOD IS GOD? concerns the practical value of belief in God. His search for the answer to this question took him to some amazing settings around the world: Mumbai, India when the firing started during the terrorist attacks; at the motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated; on the Virginia Tech campus soon after the massacre; an AA convention; and even to a conference for women in prostitution. At each of the 10 places he visited, his preparation for the visit and exactly what he said to the people he met each provided evidence that faith really does work when what we believe is severely tested. WHAT GOOD IS GOD? tells the story of Philips journey--the background, the preparation, the presentations themselves. Here is a story of grace for armchair travelers, spiritual seekers, and those in desperate need of assurance that their faith really matters.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The search for God in the midst of horror, disaster, and loss has confounded believers for centuries. How does belief actually matter in the lives of those who suffer? Yancey, popular journalist and public speaker, travels the world and attempts to make some theological sense of the hurting people and devastated places he observes, from Virginia Tech to Mumbai. The author is very adept at walking the fine line between being "in" the world and being "of" the world. His global treks allow opportunities for dialogue with other cultures and religions, but his grounding is clearly in Christian scripture, which serves as a safe port when he encounters choppy secular waters. Particularly moving are the author's stories about China and his trip to a convention for former sex workers in Wisconsin. Somehow, redemption shines through in all of these encounters, and faith in God and humanity emerges intact, if a little bruised. The author truly believes that God can be found in the lives of ordinary people all over the world, and his compelling stories may just convince others, too. (Oct. 19) (c)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* “I travel,” Yancey writes, “for the same reason anyone travels.” Readers may, however, see more self-effacing humility than truth in these words. For the journeys here recounted are those of an extraordinary pilgrim. What Yancey seeks in his globe-straddling travels is spiritual understanding of how God works his miracles of grace through men and women grappling with life’s most wrenching difficulties. Readers thus join the author in marveling at how faith can sustain believers grieving the violent deaths of loved ones in Blacksburg, Virginia, and Mumbai, India; can empower prostitutes trying to escape from the sex trade in Perth, Australia, and buoy alcoholics fighting their addiction in Chicago; and can even enable black Christians in South Africa to extend miraculous forgiveness to their former oppressors under apartheid. Traversing the U.S. and the UK, Yancey finds that the same faith that comforts the oppressed can pierce the comforts of the wealthy, summoning the devout to aid the downtrodden. Still, Yancey refuses to reduce his message to simply a call for improving this world. Drawing on the work of C. S. Lewis, he affirms his ultimate allegiance to a God whose eternal dominion transcends all things earthly. A bracing witness, challenging both religious complacency and secular skepticism. --Bryce Christensen

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: FaithWords (October 19, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446559857
• ISBN-13: 978-0446559850
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #190,184 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

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Sojourns of journalist a metaphor for spiritual journey of believer October 20, 2010

By Holly Weiss VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Phillip Yancey is one of the most influential writers in the Evangelical world today. "I write books for myself," he says on his blog, "searching for a loving, gracious God." Yancey writes about God's grace instead of the God he feared because of the hellfire and brimstone preaching he received from what he calls a "toxic church."

Yancey brings us a new format in his book, What Good is God. He takes us on a global trek to ten distinct groups of people to determine if the faith he writes about holds up through the tough issues he encounters in the "refiner's fire of oppression, violence, and plague." We see underground Christians in China, the horrific lives of those thrown into prostitution, recovering alcoholics in Chicago and life on campus in a 1960s Bible College. The idea for the book came to him while on an airplane. After his book tour in India was bumped because of the terror in Mumbai in 2008, Yancey instead spoke to a small group in an Indian church. His theme: How do we find comfort in the midst of disaster and suffering?

During his quest, Yancey, the journalist observed with a practiced eye while Yancey, the believer, probed his soul for answers. His sojourns through the dark places of our planet and its broken people are metaphors for his own spiritual journey. The message of What Good is God? echoes that of a pastor preaching from a passage in Romans following the Virginia Tech campus massacre. "Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good."

The design of the book was refreshing. Effective illustrations precede each chapter. The poignant cover shows a small lantern perched high above an unnamed modern city. Faith in God makes a difference--not just in a small 18th century church, but in the indescribable suffering of today's world.

Compassion may have been the only gift Phillip Yancey felt he could give to the broken and injured he met on his travels. The message of What Good is God, however, is clear. Good exists in this flawed planet because God is here. By encouraging believers to allow the light of Christ to illuminate the darkest places of our experiences, Phillip Yancey reassures us that our vigilant God is present, no matter what tragedy we stumble upon.

Reviewed by Holly Weiss, author of Crestmont

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An Important Window on the World from a Global Journalist October 28, 2010

By David Crumm TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

Philip Yancey fans don't really need reviews to convince them to read Philip's next book. They know the wisdom that awaits them and they tend to follow each new volume as it appears. So, this review is geared in particular to first-time readers and people newly curious about Philip's popularity as a writer.

One major distinction is that Philip is first and foremost a journalist. Yes, he's a very popular evangelical speaker and online writer. In fact, this new book is assembled from 10 visits he has made around the world in recent years, primarily as an invited speaker. But his professional training and the bulk of his career is as a journalist. That means his toolbox as a writer opens up, first, to explore and investigate his subjects before he writes. Many best-selling evangelical authors are preachers or are the heads of nonprofit organizations--and they are writing out of their own accumulated wisdom about the world. They are delivering their popular books to us as their reflections from the pulpit or the director's office. Philip begins down in the grassroots. He opens that journalist's toolbox and explores life on the ground. His books come to us out of the experiences of many real people.

This book differs from some of his earlier journalistic books in that it's not a single focused inquiry. For example, his very fine book, Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?, is a wide-ranging investigation of the experience of prayer. It's one book; one huge topic. In "What Good Is God?" the single topic is the world itself in this opening decade of the third millennium of Christianity. But, the individual chapters really stand alone as inquiries into regions as diverse as the Middle East--and the stomping grounds of C.S. Lewis. Each chapter includes both a message that Philip delivered in that place--and a story he has assembled from news events and from his own experiences in each place.

It's a great "read" and a great choice for small group discussion. You'll have no problem sparking spirited conversation from these chapters. But this book also is valuable as a historical snapshot of global Christianity at this major cultural turning point. Enjoy it on your own -- or with your group of friends.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved It! Here's my review... October 19, 2010

By Terry Lane

Format:Hardcover

Though I had heard of Philip Yancey, bestselling author, journalist and speaker, several times in the past, this was the first book (of his twenty-some books) that I had the opportunity to read.

WHAT GOOD IS GOD? follows in the steps of several of Mr. Yancey's previous offerings and poses a question that concerns the practical value of belief in God: Does faith really matter? This simple question, though the answer isn't an easy find, takes the author to some of the most fascinating places one individual could go: from the massacre at Virginia Tech to the terror that encircled the streets of Mumbai; from the underground faith in China to the church at risk in the Middle East; from a conference full of professional sex workers to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in Chicago.

I particularly enjoyed the format of the book. The author pulled off the extraordinary task of drawing the reader into ten earlier (and amazingly unique) experiences and propelled them from his past and into our present. He draws us in to the places he visited - as if we are standing directly in the midst of the chaos erupting in Mumbai, India in 2008 or experiencing firsthand the tragedy and the pain that embodied those involved in the massacre at Virginia Tech in 2007 - and gives us, the reader, a chance to hear exactly what he said to the people he met during these difficult times.

I believe you will, as I did, walk away with a clearer understanding of how faith in action works and how grace, when displayed on large and small scales alike, can be presented beautifully, as Mr. Yancey puts it, even in the hands of God's people. He closes the last section of this book with this exhortation: We who follow Jesus are called to be dispensers of God's grace, setting loose this powerful force on a weary, violent planet. May the church be known as a place where grace flows on tap: to sinners, to rich and poor alike, to those who need more light, to outcasts, to those who disagree, to oppressed and oppressors both.

WHAT GOOD IS GOD? is a beautiful exploration of one man's journey to show a lost and dying world that faith really does work, especially when it's tested to the extreme.