Rating: 
Summary: How Sweet the Sound
Review: I have found myself telling people stories and quotes from this book so often that I figured it was time for me to throw my two cents out there. Philip Yancey has almost surpassed C.S. Lewis as the most insightful Christian writer I have read. And while as a philosopher I greatly appreciate the idea-based insight that Lewis provides, Yancey's works seem to offer more practical advice and help to answer the question: "How then should we live?" After reading this book, I can't see Grace anymore as just one of those things that's meant to make us feel warm and fuzzy inside. I mean, Yancey's depictions often do bring those warm and fuzzy feelings, but more than that, it shows the unquestionable POWER and STRENGTH that is contained within grace. It's not just a nice, sweet little virtue that we do because it's easy. This book showed me that Grace is life changing and necessary. And when I read the part where the civil rights worker looks out the window and through laughter and tears first understands what grace really is, that was the moment when I truly began to understand what grace really is. And it truly is amazing.
Rating:
Summary: This Book Defines Christian Living
Review: Book of the Year winner, this is the best book, outside of the Bible, that I have ever read. In WHAT'S SO AMAZING ABOUT GRACE, Yancey presents a radical picture of what grace, the last good word, really is. As usual, his writing style is very down to earth, human, empathetic, and insightful. Grace is unmerited favor; forgiveness when it is not deserved or earned. So how do we deal with the idea of grace in the context of things like Nazi Germany, KKK atrocities, and Columbine high school? Can we reconcile the two in our minds? We must, if we are to understand grace as it is presented in the Bible. Real grace is incredibly scandalous. But scandalous grace is what God demands of His church. Real grace forgives the unforgivable, loves the unlovable, and reaches even to the undesirable. And when such grace is given, the world sees Christ, for Christ's grace given to us is just as amazing. Yancey's words are poignant but sometimes shocking, as it is difficult for the rational human mind to impart grace when we tend to so automatically demand justice (the old eye-for-an-eye idea). The conflict is worthy of the struggle, though, because the application of his ideas on grace is truly profound. The most beautiful part of this book is how it works on two levels. Understanding grace radically transforms the relationship between you and God, freeing you from the bondage of legalism and salvation-through-works. Grace also transforms the relationships between you and the world. This is not a relationship book, but it has affect me in that area more than anything that I have read, for if God can show such amazing grace to me who am I to treat my peers any differently? When grace is given and people are forgiven we find incredible freedom from the bondage of unforgiveness and bitterness on our hearts. And, as Martin Luther King Jr. demonstrated, the impact of radical grace can literally change the course of history. Learning to impart grace, and in the process destroying the cycle of un-grace, will utterly change your world. There is no other book that I can recommend more to a Christian searching to be more like Jesus, love more like Jesus, and experience His love to the fullest at the same time. Five Stars.
Rating:
Summary: Everyone needs to read this book - Christian or not
Review: This is one of my favorite books of all time. I've bought many copies and given them away. To me this book summarizes what Jesus was all about - love, forgiveness...GRACE.
Rating:
Summary: Exceptional
Review: Phillip Yancey has written his masterpiece. This book will touch you to your core being, your soul, and your heart. I found myself so into reading this book, I could not put it down. Yancey is incredibly adept at showing how much love Christ has for all of his followers, and all of humanity. I have shared this book with numerous people, and I have never had a bad response to the message it puts forth. We must learn how to show grace to each other. If you read the story of the father who is waiting for his runaway teenage prostitute daughter and do not cry, you are living in an alternate reality. This book was very challenging, and not afraid to tackle the issues of homosexuality and other tough issues that Christianity, especially evangelical Christianity, refuse to deal with. Thanks again to the author for an incredible book. I will read it again and enjoy it more, like a fine wine, Yancey gets better with age.
Rating:
Summary: Philip Yancey Is Amazing!
Review: Author Philip Yancey offers a refreshing viewpoint of grace in his spiritually challenging book What's So Amazing About Grace? He effectively uses the scriptures as a lens to focus on the life we lead today. His illustrations help the reader to turn that lens on himself or herself - not in a critical way, but in a soul-opening way. He has chosen some of the most startling and effective illustrations I have ever encountered. This book, already being used in our Christian colleges, needs to be required reading for anyone who takes his or her Christian life seriously.
Rating:
Summary: Grace, Not Religion
Review: Philip Yancey clearly explains the true meaning of Grace, not the "religion" I grew up with. What a wonderful breath of fresh air!
Rating:
Summary: If you have half a brain, you'll love this book
Review: First off, I can't understand how anyone could not love this book, especially Christians. I just read a review that stated "Yancy cheapened Grace" by the way he wrote this book. Are you kidding me??? Most of the stories he uses (like Babettes Feast) show someone offering everything and receiving nothing for it in return. The stories are just shadows of what Jesus did for us. He was showing demonstrations and examples of different forms of grace. Yancy was not comparing the suffering of the cross with cooking a meal. I love it when ignorant reviewers twist interpretations and meanings, and give an awesome book a bad review. THIS BOOK IS EXCELLENT AND A MUST READ!!!
Rating: 
Summary: The Challenge of Grace!
Review: What this book absolutely does is make a personal challenge of one's view of the 'limitations' of grace. And that is a good thing. We tend to lean 'by nature' towards what grace isn't... i.e. making judgements, making rules, making bench marks (especially ourselves if life is going well), and creating groups of 'haves' and 'have nots' with regard to Christ and the Kingdom. If there is a statement this book is making it's Grace (to the elect [my thought]) has no boundaries which is in fact its peculiar power to sustain: its a paradox that 'sin conscious' minds (including mine) struggle to see.
The temptation is to say something like... 'Philip Yancey needs to be careful he is not trying to legitimize sin'... but that, I believe, is the carnal mind trying to help God and grace do its complete work.
I'll be reading this a second time!
Rating:
Summary: The best Christian book I ever read
Review: I was attracted to this book by the long list of recommendation on the back cover and the stamp that said it's the 1996 book of the year by a publisher association. As a Chinese born and living in Hong Kong, I took them as sheer American style marketing gimmick. The fact is, I had been 100% wrong. I had read tens if not over a hundred Christian books and this is by far the best I ever picked. It had corrected many of my misunderstandings or ignorance about Jesus, His Grace and His teachings. Say, I can disagree with homosexuality, adultery, communism but I still have to love patients, victims and sinners as Jesus did. Non violent protest can still mean a lot as what Martin Luther King did. Legalism and perfectionism can do more harm than good in evangelistic sense coz humans tend to break rules innately, and rule-breaking will haunt somebody from church and God, and that of one hundred men one read the Bible and the ninty nine read Christians etc etc. Some reviewers criticized that the author had tried to preach his own secular view instead of Jesus's teachings, to replace God's high grace with low human love and care, to win the approval of men at the expense of God's holiness blah blah blah. I assure you that all of these criticisms were wrong, and I sincerely hope that you can read the book through and judge yourself. You wont be disappointed and you may even be moved into tears on some chapters. Below please find some copy and paste for your reference. Hope you like them. Nowadays legalism has changed its focus. In a thoroughly secular culture, the church is more likely to show ungrace through a spirit of moral superiority or a fierce attitude toward opponents in the culture wars. The church also communicates ungrace through its lack of unity. Mark Twain used to say he put a dog and a cat in a cage together ...a bird, pig and goat. They, too, got along fine after a few adjustments. Then he put in a Baptist, Presbyterian, and Catholics; soon there was not a living thing left. Pg 33 In one of his last acts before death, Jesus forgave a thief dangling on a cross, knowing full well the theif had converted out of plain fear. That theif would never study the Bibile, never attend synagogue or church, and never make amends to all those he had wronged. He simply said "Jesus, remember me," and Jesus promised, "Today you will be with me in paradise." It was another reminder that grace does not depend on what we have done for God but rather what God has done for us. Pg 54 Paul, the chief of sinners, he once called himself - knew beyond doubt that God loves people because who God is, not because of who we are. Pg67 Jesus declared that we should have one distinguishing mark: not political correctness or moral superiority, but love. Paul added that without love nothing will do - no miracle of faith, no theological brilliance, no flaming personal sacrifice - will avail.
Rating:
Summary: REAL grace
Review: Philip Yancey shows what REAL grace really is. What we see is that grace is in short supply in places where it should be in abundance. We also see that grace is the true message of Jesus. Yancey points out that once the effort element is added to grace, then grace ceases being grace... it metamorphoses into something far less. Yancey makes use of several compelling stories to show us that grace, REAL grace is truly amazing AND that UNgrace undermines the gospel in the lives of people who are in desperate need for that Amazing Grace! -- K.K. Dunn, Kansas City
|
