Some days, the news seems too much to bear. Yet another tsunami or earthquake or flood or fire or war atrocity. One more gun-toting madman stalking young people in idyllic Norway or moviegoers in Colorado or schoolchildren in Newtown, Connecticut. We turn off the news only to get a phone call about expectant parents with a stillborn baby, or a loved one whose cancer has returned.
If we have faith in God, it gets shaken to the core. What was God doing in the moment when that tragedy could have been prevented? If we can’t trust God to keep our children safe or our loved ones from dying in agony, what can we trust God for?
In his classic book WHERE IS GOD WHEN IT HURTS?, Philip Yancey gave us permission to doubt, reasons not to abandon faith, and practical ways to reach out to hurting people. Now, with new perspectives and stories gathered across nearly twenty-five years, once again he tackles the hard questions head-on. His visits to three places in 2012 raised the old problems with new urgency.
More veteran pilgrim than curious journalist in his later years, Yancey faces with his trademark honesty the issues that often undermine faith, yet he emerges with comfort and hope. Along the way, he shows that Christians have an important role to play in bringing healing to a deeply wounded world.
There are hopeful reasons to ask, once again, the question that never goes away…
If we have faith in God, it gets shaken to the core. What was God doing in the moment when that tragedy could have been prevented? If we can’t trust God to keep our children safe or our loved ones from dying in agony, what can we trust God for?
In his classic book WHERE IS GOD WHEN IT HURTS?, Philip Yancey gave us permission to doubt, reasons not to abandon faith, and practical ways to reach out to hurting people. Now, with new perspectives and stories gathered across nearly twenty-five years, once again he tackles the hard questions head-on. His visits to three places in 2012 raised the old problems with new urgency.
More veteran pilgrim than curious journalist in his later years, Yancey faces with his trademark honesty the issues that often undermine faith, yet he emerges with comfort and hope. Along the way, he shows that Christians have an important role to play in bringing healing to a deeply wounded world.
There are hopeful reasons to ask, once again, the question that never goes away…
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Reviews
Filled with honest consideration and insight.. This book is great for anyone wanting something easy to read but deep to consider.
In his new book, Philip Yancey returns to the question, 'what is God up to in a world of such tragedy and pain?'. Many of his best-selling books have considered this, most difficult of question and with 'The Question that Never Goes Away' Yancey continues to express his own journey in print.
Philip Yancey is interviewed by Sharon Barnard, for Woman Alive Magazine.
Philip Yancey is interviewed in The War Cry by Philip Halcrow
Philip Yancey is interviewed in Inspire by Sharon Barnard
Philip Yancey has been the Church's go-to man on suffering since his first book, Where is God When it Hurts?, and is often invited to address trauma-struck communities such as Columbine, Fukushima and Sandy Hook. Such face-to-face meetings with survivors and the bereaved keep him from glib answers. He treats both tragedy and faith with equal respect in this reflective work. Fuelled by honesty, pithy stories, well-selected quotes and interesting touches ... this vivid book condenses observation and theology into a wise, sensitive and practical aid to understanding the brokenness around us and responding as God's presence in the lives of the hurting ... newcomers to his work will quickly see his great appeal as he offers helpful insight, freshly forged in the heat of very recent news stories. - ****
Yancey is happy to consider ways in which suffering can lead to growth, and to emphasise resurrection and redemption. His first priority, however, is wise discernment of what would be best said to a particular suffering person, and what would be best not said.
There is much encouragement and hope contained within. Yancy writes with clarity and compassion. He does not under estimate the destructive force of suffering, neither does he attempt to provide neat, glib answers.