Rumors of Another World

Philip Yancey believes we are missing the supernatural hidden in everyday life. In this 2004 Christianity Today Book Award of Merit winner, he investigates the natural world and discovers the supernatural hiding in plain view. Nature and super nature are not two separate worlds but different expressions of the same reality. Join Yancey as he grapples with why God made the world, what your role truly is, and how can you live in the natural world while expressing the values of the supernatural. You'll be challenged to tune into "rumors of another world" and connect the seen with the unseen. The grace-filled result will be a life of beauty, purpose, freedom, and faith.

The spiritual world is not obvious, and God does not force anyone to believe in God. There are, however, clues, or "rumors," as author and editor Yancey calls them, to the spiritual all around us. We simply need to be attentive to them. Yancey (What's So Amazing About Grace?; Where Is God When It Hurts?) aims to help readers, especially those who are not religious but suspect that the spiritual exists, to tune into the rumors. Some are familiar, such as the complexity of living beings or the beauty of nature. Others are not so quickly associated with the spiritual, such as sexual pleasure. Yancey makes it clear, especially to those on the "borderlands" of faith, that these and many other rumors are all indications of the spiritual world. His skill as an award-winning author is evident throughout this engaging volume. Highly recommended, especially for collections of Christian inspirational reading.-John Moryl, Yeshiva Univ., New York Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

In a work that is startling and original, Yancey (What's So Amazing About Grace?; The Jesus I Never Knew) writes for people on the "borderlands" of Christian faith: those who may have been scarred by bad church experiences, or those who simply have more doubts and questions than they have faith. Most people, he says, perceive "rumors of another world" while inhabiting this one; they long for something more, and yearn for belief in God's transcendence. We substitute other things for God in order to fill this void. (In a chapter that by itself is worth the price of admission, Yancey claims that our culture's fascination with sex stems from the fact that sex is one of the only transcendent, mysterious experiences remaining in the contemporary West.) The quality of Yancey's writing-and his thinking-are simply superb. He is fond of modern literary giants like Simone Weil, Virginia Woolf and Evelyn Waugh and is apt to defer to the insights of 20th-century poets such as T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden. He also draws from his understanding of God-in-nature (shades of Annie Dillard here) and from his travels all over the world, using Tasmanian sheep to illustrate a point about human freedom and Costa Rican leatherback turtles to demonstrate "the mixed messages in nature." One particularly powerful chapter discusses the thorny-and unpopular-topics of guilt and repentance. Yancey, one of the Christian market's best writers, shows a marvelous ability to speak to the world outside that market. (Sept. 2) Forecast: To promote this book, Yancey will do a 12-city national tour, the first-ever book tour for this author, who in the last 25 years has sold more than seven million books. He will also be the featured speaker for a live broadcast on September 14 on the Church Communication Network, with 1,500 subscribing churches. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

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Reviewed by Jim Parsons (Edmonton, Canada), April 23, 2008

I believe this is Philip Yancey’s best book - at least in those I have read. The book is filled with stories, examples, and insights, and the content is really quite strong. As an academic writer myself, the book represents a lesson on how to write a book, and it is not difficult to see how Yancey collected his notes and insights over the years to organize the content. I found the book filled with small, wonderful insights – and I have carefully taken notes throughout the book to add to my own background and work. I recommend the book and have, in fact, purchased multiple copies for gifts to friends. The book gainfully rewards a serious read.

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