The best selling author talks to Clem Jackson about writing, about his new book, the global church and golf.
Billy Graham has said of Philip Yancey, “There is no writer in the evangelical world I admire and appreciate more.” Yancey has sold over 14 million books across the globe and is one of the most popular American Christian authors in the UK; his books are to be found on the shelves of secular booksellers as well as Christian.
His latest book, What Good is God’ published in the UK this month by Hodder & Stoughton, is likely to be eagerly awaited by his many fans. But what is it about Yancey that people connect with?
He has described himself as, “at times as a reluctant Christian, plagued by doubts and 'in recovery' from bad church encounters.” Yet in his books, which he admits he writes for himself - “to resolve things that are bothering me, things I don't have answers to” - he is obviously exploring issues which millions of people resonate with. Or perhaps it’s his investigative journalistic style people appreciate. So how does the journalistic approach impact his writing?
PY: In several ways. First, I approach a topic as a generalist, not an expert. I believe my calling is to represent the ordinary person in the pew (or not in the pew) who has questions about faith. As a journalist I can go to the experts, interview them, do research, whatever it takes, but always positioned as the inquirer trying to represent my readers as well as I can.
Also, as a journalist I’m always looking for stories. What Good is God? is a good example, because in it I tell the “story behind the story” of ten different locations and predicaments I found myself in, including some very dramatic ones, like the night of the Mumbai bombings. Journalists love being caught up in adventures - as long as we survive to write about it, that is.
CJ: The book has an interesting title – it might even have been used by someone like Richard Dawkins – but what came first, the title or the book?
PY: The book was finished when I sat at a large table at the publisher’s office and one of the editors suggested this title. Unlike some responses to Dawkins and his kin, this one does not respond with philosophical arguments or concepts. My approach, again as a journalist, is to examine the final results: does God make a difference in extreme situations, such as a massacre in Mumbai or an earthquake in Haiti, as well as in the more ordinary circumstances in which we live out our faith. I look for concrete examples of “a faith that matters.”
CJ: And what answer to the question did you come up with as a result of your investigations?
PY: You want me to give away the book? It took me several hundred pages to answer that question, and I imagine that different readers will respond to different parts of my conclusion. Rest assured, I wouldn’t have invested all the time and energy in this book if I did not believe God does indeed make a difference. What kind? Only the book can answer that.
CJ: As you have travelled for this book what has most encouraged you … and what has disappointed you most?
PY: I would have a much harder time as a Christian if I only knew the church in the West. In much of Europe churches seem like museums, and serious Christians comprise a small minority of the population. In the U.S., church seems like a corporation, with departments and committees dividing up the work. In places like Brazil, the Philippines, or rural China, the church is vibrant and alive, and people truly hear the Gospel as Good News. I want to capture some of that spirit for those who don’t have the opportunity to travel and inquire.
I’m disappointed, however, when I find the same tendencies that plague the church in the West replicated elsewhere: legalism, division, pettiness, pride, selfishness. There is no perfect church.
CJ: You make the point that the church in the ‘global south’ and China is exploding in growth whilst in the west it is in sharp decline. From what you’ve seen, why do you think that is?
PY: In a place like China, Christianity underwent the greatest numerical revival in history, but only after the missionaries got expelled. China represents a unique case in which communist leaders stripped a traditional culture of meaning and value and tried to re-create it from the ground up. That created a vacuum which caused many to look elsewhere, including Christianity.
In other places, decades of missionary work bore fruit. When people identify Christianity with the teachers who taught them to read, the nurses and doctors who brought them health, the agricultural experts who improved their livelihood, they will listen to what motivates such people.
These are sociological explanations, of course. My one-sentence summary of such trends is simple: God goes where he’s wanted. Often, people who have few advantages in this life look for justice and meaning and comfort elsewhere - their only hope - whereas those of us who live in comfort stop looking elsewhere and no longer listen to rumours of transcendence. We “forget God,” in the Old Testament prophets’ damning phrase.
CJ: You say that on psychometric tests you score as an extreme introvert and are never happier than when writing alone. So why do you devote so much time to undertaking public speaking assignments?
PY: Writers are schizophrenic. We must have isolation - I can’t write if someone shares the same room with me. Yet we’re always haunted by such questions as “Does my work matter?” and “Will anyone read what I’m writing?” In most cases I’m asked to speak on a topic that I’ve written about, and after spending many months on the subject I want to carry on a conversation, to create a kind of dialogue with my readers after the long monologue of the writing process. Speaking to a live audience offers me assurance that what I do in isolation does indeed connect with real people.
Of course, that assurance doesn’t help me with the next book I start working on; the paranoia descends again like a cloud. But without coming out of my cave occasionally I would never meet my readers, never quiet those haunting questions that plague the act of writing.
CJ: Clearly, as a writer, you hope that people will buy and read your books, but what do you hope readers will take away from reading What Good is God? ?
PY: I present ten different scenarios, which recapitulate in sharp relief the themes I often write about: redemptive suffering, hope for the disappointed, grace for those who feel unworthy, justice for the dispossessed. Can faith truly make a difference in extreme circumstances? Can we genuinely trust the possibility of transformation, of a faith that matters ultimately? I hope readers will take away personal answers to that question even as I describe situations from around the world.
CJ: As you recall in the book, you had your own near-fatal experience in the automobile crash in 2007. How are you now, physically, and how has your experience affected your faith?
PY: Yes, I broke my neck in a rollover auto accident, and spent seven scary hours strapped to a backboard as doctors debated whether the break had pierced a major artery. I look back on that day with great gratitude, I must say. It forced me to examine my own life with an urgency available in no other way. Issues in my marriage that seemed important at the time seemed very unimportant after that day. I decided that only three questions really matter when you face death. Whom do I love? How have I lived? Am I ready for what’s next? Yet we spend so much energy on less ultimate questions.
Physically, I’m fine. I ski bumps, mountain bike, climb mountains, do all those reckless things I did before the accident. The vertebrae aren’t lined up perfectly, so I could face bone spurs or arthritis in my neck sometime in the future, but so far I’ve avoided surgery.
CJ: I know that golf is a particular passion of yours so I guess you are looking forward to the Ryder Cup but how do you think the USA will fare this time?
PY: Wow, I’ve never been asked to make a sports prognostication! Europeans have done quite well in the major US tournaments this year, and of course Tiger Woods appears to be less of a factor. I anticipate a very close contest. If the Americans win, I hope they don’t gloat like schoolboys, as they did a few years ago. Most of the time, golf is a “gentleman’s sport” and golfers comport themselves appropriately. May that continue, regardless who wins.
CJ: And what’s next for Philip Yancey?
PY: Long-range, I’m working on a memoir. I’ve spent several years preparing for it and still haven’t written a word. I’ve learned to master writing-avoidance techniques! Someday I have to get to work. In the meantime, I’m still travelling, researching, investigating. In other words, free-lancing with the emphasis on free.
