When celebrating Christmas does not come easily, David Bannon offers a book of reflection, beauty, and hope. Christmas is difficult for many of us. While some are expressing joy, others are re-living painful memories and reminders of loss. This book is a journey of beauty and meditation for those for whom ordinary Advent devotionals could never help. David Bannon writes from profound personal experience. His reflections provide a way to commune with Scripture and with God. These are paired with beautiful paintings created by wounded artists, including Gauguin, Tissot, Caravaggio, Tanner, Delacroix, Van Gogh, and Durer. In their wounds, and from our own, we may once again encounter "God with us." Based on the latest research in history and grief, Wounded in Spirit also returns to where Christian art began. From mourning in Roman catacombs to works of the masters, Bannon leads us to join the world's great artists on their pilgrimages of brokenness. This is a book of hope.

'Why does the church stir up such negative feelings?' This is a question that Philip Yancey has been asking all his life - for himself, as a pilgrim; for others, as a journalist. The question is more relevant now than ever: in the UK Christianity continues to decline, even as it is increasingly thought to be linked with intolerant, fundamentalist attitudes. Yet while identification with traditional forms of Christian religion is dropping, indicators show that interest in spirituality is rising. Why the disconnect? Why are so many asking, 'What's so good about the "good news?"' Yancey's lifelong writing career has always focused on the search for honest faith that makes a visible difference for a world in pain. In his landmark book What's So Amazing about Grace? he issued a benchmark call for Christians to be as grace-filled in their behaviour as they are in asserting their beliefs. People inside and outside the church are still thirsty for grace, Yancey points out. Perhaps what the church seemed to lack in its heyday is now, in its increasingly marginalised stance, exactly what it needs to recover in order to thrive. Grace can bridge the gap across the movement away from Christianity, inviting outsiders as well as insiders the chance to take a deep second look at why it matters and what could reignite its appeal to future generations. How can Christians offer grace in a way that is compelling to a jaded society? And how can they make a difference in a world of such wrenching need? Vanishing Grace: What Ever Happened to the Good News is a milestone book for all those who are striving to make sense of their faith and live it out amid the changing landscape of our day. Philip explores how Christians may have contributed to hostility toward them by presenting the gospel in ways that come across as strident and judgemental. Then he explores what kind of news is good to a culture that thinks it has rejected the Christian version. And finally, he offers illuminating stories of how faith can be expressed in ways that disarm even the most cynical critics - through pilgrims, activists, and artists rather than through preachers, evangelists, and apologists.

The future of Christianity depends on how we master the art of understanding and giving grace. At the end of the twentieth century, Philip Yancey wrote his classic bestseller What's So Amazing About Grace? as a testament to the power of God's grace and as a rallying cry to the Christian church to see the acting out of grace as its single most important contribution to the world. Now, in this 6-session, video-based participant's guide (DVD/video streaming sold separately), Yancey reexamines-with fresh material and new stories-the scandalous power of grace so that groups and individuals can reflect upon, share, and extend this amazing gift of Christ in new and transformative ways. In this study, you'll discover: The extent of God's love and what it means for us. Why the church seems to have lost the gift of grace-giving and why the world apart from the church can't offer it at all. What it would look like for us to truly understand, receive, and give the gift that God gives so generously to us. Yancey offers compelling and true portraits of grace's life-changing power. He searches for its presence in his own life and in the church. He asks how Christians today can contend graciously with moral issues that threaten all they hold dear. And he challenges each of us to become living answers to a world that desperately wants to know, "what's so amazing about grace?"

Speaker, journalist and bestselling author, Philip Yancey has travelled the world tackling the most challenging questions: Can God truly bring solace to the terrorised people of Mumbai, or the students who witnessed the murder of their classmates? Will the deep scars of racism ever heal in post-apartheid South Africa, or the American South? Can a persecuted Christian minority have any impact in places as hostile as China or the Middle East?

For each of his ten destinations, What Good is God? shares Philip's inspiring words of encouragement and reveals the compelling story behind the speaking engagement.

Whether he's addressing alcoholics or Bible college students, sex workers or C.S. Lewis enthusiasts, Yancey's experiences of redemption, hope and grace provide evidence that when we are severely tested, faith really does matter.

God is not only to be found in majestic cathedrals or supernatural visions, shows best-selling author Yancey, but also and often more powerfully in the unexpected places - the might of a polar bear, the oppression of a Peruvian prison cell or in the broken cry of Shakespeare's King Lear. As we discover God's footprints in increasingly unlikely places, so our understanding of his beauty, love and power continues to grow. Finding God in Unexpected Places will sharpen your spiritual vision and challenge you to look for God outside the four walls of the church. he may not be as far away as you think. In this updated edition of an already-popular title, Yancey has removed nine of the chapters that he felt had become dated, and added another fourteen brand new chapters.

Mysterious, intricate, pulsing with energy ... the human body is an endlessly fascinating repository of incredible secrets. In this new work, comprising two classics (Fearfully and Wonderfully Made and In His Image) edited together and updated, renowned surgeon Dr Paul Brand and award-winning writer Philip Yancey take us on a tour of wonder through the human body.

Illustrated with stories from Dr Brand's ground-breaking career as a hand surgeon who changed the lives of leprosy sufferers by transforming medical treatment protocols, this lively narrative paints an unforgettable portrait of the incredible unity of the human body in its trillions of parts.

As compassionate as he was brilliant, Dr Brand cared as much about his suffering patients as he was intensely curious about how the body works. And so just as his brilliant intuition - which led to medical breakthroughs earning him international awards and acclaim - makes human physiology come alive on the page, so does his deep love for people in their dignity as image-bearers make spirituality come alive on the page as well.

Although Brand and Yancey do not presume that readers share their Christian faith, they trace the metaphor of 'one body, many parts' from a medical perspective on human life as well as a mystical perspective on the unifying presence of the Body of Christ. Filled with riveting stories of Dr Brand's work among the marginalized and outcast, this journey of understanding offers astonishing insights and page-turning reading.

For the first time, bestselling author Philip Yancey tells the story of his coming of age in the fundamentalist South--a family drama in the tradition of Educated and Hillbilly Elegy that explores the dark side of extremist Christian faith and chronicles the journey of one of the most influential religious writers of our time.

Raised by an impoverished widow who earned room and board as a Bible teacher in 1950s Atlanta, Philip Yancey and his brother, Marshall, found ways to venture out beyond the confines of their eight-foot-wide trailer. But when Yancey was in college, he uncovered a shocking secret about his father's death—a secret that began to illuminate the motivations that drove his mother to extreme, often hostile religious convictions and a belief that her sons had been ordained for a divine cause.

Searching for answers, Yancey dives into his family origins, taking us on an evocative journey from the backwoods of the Bible Belt to the bustling streets of Philadelphia; from trailer parks to church sanctuaries; from family oddballs to fire-and-brimstone preachers and childhood awakenings through nature, music, and literature. In time, the weight of religious and family pressure sent both sons on opposite journeys—one toward healing from the impact of what he calls a toxic faith; the other into a self-destructive spiral.

Where the Light Fell is a gripping family narrative set against a turbulent time in post-World War II America, shaped by the collision of Southern fundamentalism and the mounting pressures of the civil rights movement and sixties-era forces of social change. In piecing together his fragmented personal history and his journey to redemption, Yancey gives testament to the enduring power of our search for truth and the possibility of faith rooted in grace instead of fear.

"I truly believe this is the one book I was put on earth to write," says Yancey. "So many of the strands from my childhood—racial hostility, political division, culture wars—have resurfaced in modern form. Looking back points me forward."

We have seen progress in recent decades toward Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of beloved community. But this is not only because of the activism and sacrifice of a generation of civil rights leaders. It happened because God was on the move. Historian and theologian Charles Marsh partners with veteran activist John Perkins to chronicle God's vision for a more equitable and just world. Perkins reflects on his long ministry and identifies key themes and lessons he has learned, and Marsh highlights the legacy of Perkins's work in American society. Together they show how abandoned places are being restored, divisions are being reconciled, and what individuals and communities are doing now to welcome peace and justice. Now updated to reflect on current social realities, this book reveals ongoing lessons for the continuing struggle for a just society. Come, discover your part in the beloved community. There is unfinished work still to do.

OVER TWO MILLION COPIES SOLD! It's the most powerful force in the universe, our only hope for love and forgiveness, and a foretaste of eternal life: amazing, radical, life-changing grace. Millions of lives have been changed by award-winning author Philip Yancey's startling exploration of grace at street level. Grace is the one thing the world can't duplicate, the healing force we need, and the key to transforming a broken world. In this revised and updated edition of his personal and provocative book, Yancey offers true portraits of grace's life-changing power. These stories, set in the midst of life's stark realities, evoke such questions as: If grace is God's love for the undeserving, how do I get it? How well are we dispensing grace to a world that knows far more of strife and unforgiveness than it does of mercy? Can grace make a difference in the midst of such atrocities as the Nazi holocaust, and how can it withstand the brutality of hate?   With powerful stories, rich theology, and practical suggestions, Yancey challenges us to become living answers to a world that desperately needs to know, What's So Amazing About Grace?

'Not until college days do I discover the shocking secret of my father's death.' With a journalist's background Philip Yancey is widely admired for taking on the more difficult and confusing aspects of faith. Now in Where the Light Fell he shares, for the first time, the painful details of his own origins - taking us on an evocative journey from the backwoods and Bible-belt pockets of the South to the bustling streets of Philadelphia; from trailer parks to church parking lots; from dark secrets and family oddballs to fire-and-brimstone preachers and interminable church services. Raised by their impoverished single mother, Philip and his brother Marshall struggle to comprehend her speeches about their dead father, an Old Testament Bible story, and sons sacrificed for a divine cause. This coming-of-age story is a slice of life, both intensely personal and broadly resonant, set against a turbulent time in post-WWII American history shaped by the racism and paranoia of fundamentalist Christianity and reshaped by the mounting pressures of the Civil Rights movement and 60s-era forces of social change. An unforgettable read, it is at once hugely funny, deeply disturbing and achingly poignant. A testament to the power of the human spirit, Where the Light Fell illuminates Yancey's ability to bring comfort to those bruised by the church, and hope to those who can't imagine ever finding a healthy faith.

An inspirational classic for more than thirty years, Where Is God When It Hurts? honestly explores pain--from physical wounds to emotional and spiritual pain--and sheds new light on God's presence in our suffering. "How can a loving God allow this to happen? God is either all-loving or all-powerful, but he can't be both." You've heard that question, and perhaps you've even asked it yourself. When a loved one dies, we receive a terminal diagnosis, or natural disasters strike, people often wonder whether God is the cause of suffering and why he doesn't immediately take away the pain or fix the situation. As a result, we become angry at the once-beloved God who betrayed us. In this Gold Medallion Award-winning book, bestselling author Philip Yancey uses examples from the Bible and from his own experiences to show us how we can learn to accept--without blame, anger, or fear--that which we don't understand. Along the way, he answers questions such as: Why is there such a thing as pain? Is pain a message from God? How should we respond to suffering? How can we learn to cope with pain? With over one million copies already sold, Where Is God When It Hurts? speaks to everyone who thinks that suffering doesn't make sense. With compassion and clarity, Yancey brings us one step closer to finding an answer when our pain, or the pain of those we love, is real and we are left wondering, where is God when it hurts? Praise for Where Is God When It Hurts?: "One of the most helpful treatments of the problem of evil that I've ever read. If I were looking around for something to give to individuals who are going through travail or difficulty, this is the book I'd recommend." --Dr. Vernon Grounds, former Chancellor of Denver Seminary

Multi-award winning spirituality writer Philip Yancey is loved throughout the world for his honest, insightful and inspirational writing. PRAYER: DOES IT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE? carries all the hallmarks of classic Yancey, a journalist by training. His quest to unravel the mysteries of prayer reads as the journal of a fellow traveller: questioning, challenging, lamenting the unexplainable and rejoicing in the discovery of awesome insights. His journey is beautifully illustrated with moving true stories drawn from around the world. PRAYER: DOES IT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE? tackles the following questions: What is prayer? What difference does it make? Why and how should we pray? What about unanswered prayer? How should we understand prayer for physical healing? Focusing on such a universal theme, this is potentially Yancey's biggest book yet. To date, his books have sold over 14 million copies, and have been translated into 25 languages. His first book with Hodder, SOUL SURVIVOR, sold over 90,000 copies in just five years.

Disillusioned by the distortions and hypocrisies of the church in which he grew up, Philip Yancey set out in search of a life enhanced by faith instead of diminished by religion. Having struggled to forge personal convictions about God amid the ironies of life and the incongruities of religion, he looks closer at those whose lives radiate spiritual authenticity rather than pious posturing. From Dostoevsky to Martin Luther King, G. K. Chesterton to Paul Brand, Yancey pays homage to some of the most remarkable, selfless, Christ-like lives our world has known, and asks what both he and we can do to find such beautiful faith in our own lives.