VANISHING GRACE
What ever happened to the good
news?
By Philip Yancey
Hodder & Stoughton. 293 pages.
£12.99
ISBN 976 1 444 789 010
Twenty years after his best seller, What’s So Amazing About Grace?, Philip Yancey returns to the subject, concerned that too often grace is not that evident in the manner in which Christians and the church act out their faith before a watching world.
The book divides into four parts and is, at the author`s own admission, four books in one! Part One – A World Athirst – recognises that although the vast majority of people in the Western world reject anything that smacks of organised religion, the deep need of their souls for forgiveness, grace and community remains strong. In Part Two – Grace Dispensers – Yancey calls upon Christians to be ‘visible apologists’ for the gospel of grace, engaging in relationships with those who are far off and often opposed to the gospel.
The God question
He then addresses the key questions of human existence in Part Three – Is It Really Good News? – by applying Christian faith to what he calls ‘The God Question’, ‘The Human Question’ and ‘The Social Question’. This section is particularly helpful, typically well researched and peppered with quotations that reflect a deep understanding of contemporary lifeviews.
Part Four – Faith and Culture – has a distinctly US setting as Yancey critiques how many parts of the evangelical church there have engaged in public debates over morality, sexuality and ethics in America in an unhelpful manner, aligning Christian faith with one particular political viewpoint and often displaying a noticeable lack of grace to their opponents. However, this is not purely an American church problem but one that we in Britain are susceptible to. Thus Yancey ends with a call that Christians be ‘holy subversives’, putting the gospel of grace on display in word and action.
This book would make a great choice for a small group to study and discuss. You do not need to go along with all of Yancey’s ideas or conclusions, but you will gain a better grip on how grace lands in our culture today from the pen and heart of a well-researched and very readable author.
