Soul Survivor: How Thirteen Unlikely Mentors Helped My Faith Survive the Church (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Like many Christians, Philip Yancey has often felt kicked around, abused, and damaged by the institutional church. And like many Christians, he has found solace in reading about and getting to know some extraordinary individual believers. He profiles 13 of those believers in Soul Survivor: How My Faith Survived the Church. "I became a writer, I now believe, to sort out words used and misused by the church of my youth," Yancey writes in the book's first chapter. The church of his youth, which described itself as "New Testament, Blood-bought, Born-again, Premillennial, Dispensational, fundamental," Yancey now describes as a frightening place where racism and bigotry were regularly preached from the pulpit. After graduating from Bible college, Yancey became a writer and chose to direct his attention to "people I could learn from, people I might want to emulate," such as C. Everett Koop and Robert Coles. He also read widely and passionately--Leo Tolstoy, Martin Luther King Jr., G.K. Chesterton, and Annie Dillard, to name a few. Soul Survivor offers probing, honest profiles of 13 individuals who have "helped restore to me the mislaid treasures of God." For most readers, these profiles will serve as starting points to explore the lives and minds of the individuals who have inspired Yancey. --Michael Joseph Gross --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Fans of Yancey's bestseller What's So Amazing About Grace? may not know what to do with this book. In some ways, it is his darkest work ever, chronicling his own lover's quarrel with the institutional church specifically, the church of his childhood that promulgated racism and practiced a pharisaic legalism. In other ways, this book is one of his most hopeful, for in it he charts a spiritual path through all of the muck made by organized religion. As guides, he looks to "a baker's dozen" of thinkers, writers, doctors and activists who have taught him about Christianity. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life shamed Yancey into confronting his own racism and then helped his heart be transformed by Christ's love. Leo Tolstoy taught him self-forgiveness, while Fyodor Dostoyevsky modeled grace as a lived reality. John Donne taught him to wrestle with the ultimate enemy, death; Annie Dillard demonstrated ways to appreciate God in creation; Mahatma Gandhi showed him the power of one individual to change the course of history. The most moving chapter is perhaps the tribute to Paul Brand, an orthopedic surgeon whose work on leprosy helped Yancey to understand how pain can become a gift from God. It's not a perfect book; the chapter on G.K. Chesterton is too short, and the essay on former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop seems superficial in a book with such theological depth. Despite these minor flaws, this multibiography is a much-needed signpost, stubbornly pointing to the life of faith.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Galilee Trade (October 21, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385502753
• ISBN-13: 978-0385502757
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (82 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #351,153 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

73 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Powerful Personal Journey, October 18, 2001

By	Michael Janke "www.xanga.com/mikeknaj" (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Soul Survivor: How My Faith Survived the Church (Hardcover)

SOUL SURVIVOR is a big departure from Philip Yancey's usual style of book. It reads more like a pseudo-biography -- both for him and for the thirteen people who have most influenced him in his walk of faith. Much of the territory here will be familiar to long-time readers of Yancey's, but it works because of the different way it is presented.

Each chapter is devoted to an individual. Always readable, SOUL SURVIVOR reaches beyond that into more powerful air when the subject becomes more weighty (read: controversial). Chapters on Martin Luther King Jr., Paul Brandt, Mahatma Gandhi, and C. Everett Koop, in particular, I found the most enjoyable and enlightening. Yancey tells their tales in an honest manner, recognizing their shortcomings, and in doing so makes their examples all the more powerful.

As I read his (and their) story, I had to marvel at the grace of God, because Yancey has come a long way. No other person, outside of my parents, has had a greater influence on my Christian walk than Philip Yancey. Realizing that this same man was once a blatant racist (among other flaws which he is open about) amazes me. It also gives me hope, as it should his other readers, for if God can take a man and change him this much (using the influence of various authors and historical figures) it should help us to see the possibilities of what God can do in our own lives, as well as recognize the effect that our lives can have upon others.

SOUL SURVIVOR is not my favorite Philip Yancey book, nor is it his best (that title still belongs to WHAT'S SO AMAZING ABOUT GRACE). But it is a fantastic, personal journey that I am so pleased to have been allowed to be a part of. If you are disillusioned by the institution of the church here is a book that will help you to see past those flaws to recognize how God really works through individual men and women. And that is what the church is really all about. FOUR 1/2 STARS.

64 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book with a very misleading title, November 13, 2001

By	Michael Erisman (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Soul Survivor: How My Faith Survived the Church (Hardcover)

I really enjoyed this book. Yancey writes in his usual conversational tone, with emotion and feeling. However, the book is nothing like what I expected. Frankly, I read it only on his reputation, and based on some of his excellent previous work.

The title of the book is very misleading. In reality it is a series of essays on people who had an impact on his life including Martin Luther King, G.K. Chesterton, Paul Brand, Robert Coles, Leo Tolstoy & Feodor Dostoevsky, Gandhi, Everett Koop, John Donne, Annie Dillard, Frederick Buechner, Shusaku Endo and Henri Nouwen. After an initial discussion of his own Church experience in the South, and some honest, direct, and often disturbing revelations about racism and prejudice, he launches into the essays.

Each section is written as a critique of the person's Faith and impact of Yancey and others. I found the sections on Paul Brand, Robert Coles and G.K. Chesterton, especially fascinating, as I had very little knowledge of their work prior to reading the book.

I would recommend this book, simply ignore the title and enjoy some wonderful insights into the Faith of some very interesting people. While Yancy spends too little time on the effects of the Church to warrant the title of the book, the insights are worth the effort.

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another stellar offering from Philip Yancey, September 28, 2001

By	Tom Hinkle (Tulsa, OK USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Soul Survivor: How My Faith Survived the Church (Hardcover)

I've come to realize that, while preachers and priests may do a lot of good for God's Kingdom while they are on this earth, it's the writers who really have lasting influence for generations to come. (Let's face it, C.S. Lewis has done infinitely more to shape Christian thinking than, say, Jerry Falwell). Philip Yancey is one of the great writers on the Christian scene today who I am sure will live on through his books for a long time after he's gone, and it has a lot to do with the fact that writing is his life, not just a sideline to some other career. It is significant that, while Yancey was becoming disillusioned with the institutional church (especially the racist Southern fundamentalist church he grew up in) there were people, both past and present, who were instrumental in keeping his faith alive, and many (though not all) of them were writers. Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Donne, Dillard, Buechner, the list goes on. Yancey writes about these individuals and others who shaped his life through their writings and their lives.

The first individual profiled is Martin Luther King Jr. Yancey paints an almost unbelievable but unflinchingly true protrait of the extreme racism of his Atlanta upbringing in the early '60s and the ungodly mistreatment of King and his followers during that time. While not glossing over deep flaws in King's character he portrays King as a deeply spiritual man of faith and edurance who never compromised his belief in nonviolent resistance, even when many of his kindred strayed from the standard of non-retaliation King preached and practiced.

Yancey writes about thirteen individuals in all, and space does not permit a summary of each one here. The one thing they each have in common is that they had a profound effect on Yancey's life and faith. There are some interesting choices here, including one person, Mahatma Gandhi, who expressly declined to embrace the Christian faith even as he was following the teachings of Jesus more closely and seriously than perhaps 98% of all the Christians who ever lived. Some of the people profiled are fairly well known, like former Surgeon General C. Everaett Koop, and some are more obscure, at least to me, like Japanese author Shusaku Endo, but they are all worth getting to know, flaws and all. Who would make your list of thirteen influential people who have had a positive effect on your faith? Philip Yancey would certainly be a strong candidate to make my list.