Philip Yancey’s books have sold more than 15 million copies worldwide and include such bestsellers as What’s So Amazing About Grace? (1997) and Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? (2010), both published by Zondervan. His new book, Vanishing Grace: What Ever Happened to the Good News?, also from Zondervan, released in October and continues his study of a favorite topic.
How does Vanishing Grace tie back into What’s So Amazing About Grace?
When I wrote the first book back in 1997, there were a lot of people thinking that Christians could change the world, but since then the world has gotten more polarized. Then, Christians were respected, but now they are scorned. I decided to find out what happened and how we should respond to those opinions; I wanted to ask if Jesus’ message really is Good News both for me and for society at large.
What did you find in your research?
Christians seem to have three ways of looking at the world: they either hunker down and stick to themselves; accommodate society by watering down the Christian message; or want to dominate society with rhetoric like “Let’s take our country back.” None of these seem to be Jesus’ approach, or the approach of the churches of the New Testament. Their approach was to establish pioneer settlements to show a different way of living, so that bit by bit the word would spread that Christians have a better way of living.
How do you view your task as a writer?
Lots of my writing is exploration. Many religious books are written by experts, such as theologians. But I’m not an expert--I try to represent the ordinary person sitting in the church pew, so I approach topics both as a journalist asking questions and as an ordinary reader. My books always begin with a question.
Is it true that you are writing fewer books these days?
I am taking more time between books, in part because I take four international trips each year and travel about once a month within the U.S. Also, social media takes a lot of time. I show up at my desk before 8 a.m. and leave after 6 p.m. Forty percent of my writing time is spent getting ready to write, 20 percent composing, and 40 percent cleaning it up.
What are you working on now?
I’m working now on social media and promotion for Vanishing Grace, and I have a book tour this fall. I plan to start a memoir next year. It occurred to me that there are lots of books about growing up Catholic or Orthodox Jewish or about growing up as a fundamentalist evangelical and losing faith. But my story is about growing up in an unhealthy expression of fundamentalism, tossing it all aside, and then reclaiming it. I’m turning down most travel in 2015 to write that book.
