What's So Amazing About Grace?

Rating:
Summary: More Books Needed Like This One!
Review: Philip Yancey strikes a chord here that resounds in the heart of every true believer. He speaks of the unique nature of grace, and how it is desperately needed in the Church today. Yancey confronts modern Christians with the problem of "ungrace," the striking absence of the grace that so characterized Jesus Christ.

While targeted primarily towards conservative Christians, this work also applies to those persons who have more liberal views. Believers on both ends of the spectrum can be sorely lacking in grace, a quality that can only be shown by the Church.

Up to this point, the best modern book I have read on grace is "Grace Awakening" by Charles Swindoll. Yancey's work surpasses Swindoll's volume by virtue of its contemporary applications and illustrations. There are few recent books on grace available today, and this one is the best of which I am aware.

I recommend this book HIGHLY to all conservative Christians, especially persons who would identify themselves with the "Religious Right." Yancey truly emphasizes the fundamentals here. One note of caution: if you DON'T want your heart to be warmed by God's grace and compassion, then avoid this book!

Rating:
Summary: This book is amazing!
Review: This has to be one of the best Christian living books I have ever read. I recommend this book to every Christian who wants to have their idea of grace totally expanded! This book calls all Christians and the Church to a higher standard of grace.

Rating:
Summary: I don't have much to add.
Review: I don't have a lot to add to the passionate and eloquent prose heaped upon this book by many of the other reviewers that have preceeded me. It is well-written, thought provoking and touching.

Perhaps what I want to say here is what this book meant to me when I read it. I was in a hospital bed in Germany following surgery and a near-fatal motorcycle accident, with way too much time on my hands. I was in a lot of pain, and the fact that my ability to speak German was a little weak, especially the Swabian dialect in Stuttgart, didn't help much. I was for the most part emotionally and physically isolated from most of what i knew. So I didn't have much in the way of conversation with the hospital staff besides the doctors, they being the only ones that spoke english.

A friend of mine that knew I had been having a difficult time even before the accident brought the book to me, knowing that i would probably be very open-minded at that point, and he was of course correct. As adults we rarely get the luxery of 2 nearly uninterrupted weeks of self-reflection. At any rate, I read the book and was deeply touched by what it had to say. At moments I cried and at other moments I was really taken away by what it had to say. I am not born-again nor do I wish to be, but I do now have a much clearer understanding of what I personally believe and stand for.

I think this is probably the best book you could give or recommend to anyone that would like a better understanding of the Christian faith, and what it should be and so rarely is.

Rating:
Summary: Very good balance
Review: When I first started out with this book, I thought I was going to be in for one of those feel good, story driven books (aka Max Lucado style)... which are good, but not too substantive.

But about halfway into the book, Yancey writes more analytically and I started to immensely enjoy the book. Yancey even gives a section on why the stories are there despite his wanting to dissect grace... that one can't dissect and systemtically explain grace. This is my first Yancey book and I have a feeling I will be reading many more of his books. BTW, Christianitytoday.com has monthly articles written by Yancey which are an awesome read.

Rating:
Summary: Controversial, Thought Provoking Book
Review: In this book, Philip Yancey writes candidly and passionately about the issue of grace. He focuses on God's grace, and what a grace filled Christian life should look like. In the process, he unapologetically points out examples of ungrace in the attitudes and behaviors of Christians, and talks about some of these people by name. Clearly, this is a book that was written not in pursuit of winning a popularity contest, but to squarely challenge the church on a number of fronts. For the most part, I think Yancey succeeds.

The strength of the book is clearly Yancey's treatment of both the grace of God and living a grace filled life. Yancey recounts personal experiences that stretch across a wide array of circumstances and episodes to bring home the point that our culture is desperately in a mood to find grace, and that this represents an enormous opportunity for the church. One of the key premises of the book is Yancey's belief that the Christian church is the only entity or system with the ability to offer grace to people, since God's grace, when Biblically practiced, turns many societal norms upside down. Yancey is therefore imploring the church to return to a grace system that no other system outside the church can offer, so that the masses in search of grace will find it in the church, rather than not finding it at all. I found this line of reasoning to be quite persuasive.

I gave the book 4 stars instead of 5 because I felt that Yancey lost control of his subject matter a bit when discussing the relationship between the church and the state. Yancey feels very strongly that evangelicalism's preoccupation (as he sees it) with political issues like abortion and homosexuality have greatly tarnished the reputation of the church among those looking for forgiveness and grace, but not seeing much of it in evangelical circles due to their political activism in these areas. I felt that Yancey was being both unbalanced and inconsistent in this area. First of all, such an assertion makes the false assumption that everybody who has a problem with Christianity or Christians feels the way they do for legitimate reasons that can be traced back to the behavior of Christians, with no ulterior motives. This is not universally true, and should not be assumed as such. Secondly, there are times in this section when Yancey applauds (properly so, in my view) Christian activism in the areas of abolition, civil rights, medical care, and education. But these affirmations come within a section of the book that is generally hostile to Christian activism in political matters. Further, Yancey believes that evangelicalism seems more concerned with more trivial things than major things, and that this is a problem. Maybe so, but as even he says in this book, no sin is trivial to God. So the question Yancey creates for himself is who exactly is going to decide which things are trivial and which aren't? By making this assertion, Yancey is bending dangerously close to appointing himself as the gatekeeper of the exact kind of rule making legalism he writes in such strong opposition to. The bottom line, which Yancey is less than lucid about here, is that Christians have the right and the duty to take their faith beyond the church walls and allow God to use them to change the culture, which includes the political and social culture. This, however, must be done Biblically, which means as Christians, we must conduct ourselves with dignity and love. Yancey, unfortunately, spends about 5 chapters decrying the methods used by some Christians to impact the culture, without sufficiently making a balanced distinction between the Christian's duty to Biblically live out their faith in all spheres of life, versus the mistake of putting the political cause we champion above the spiritual Cause that motivates us, thus tainting our motives and techniques. In his section on the political arena, Yancey greatly emphasizes the latter, but mostly ignores the former, thus generating a perspective that I found imbalanced.

But overall, I think this is a challenging book that hits on many good points and identifies several areas where the church is in need of improvement. In that light, this book is a valuable resource.

Rating:
Summary: A Breath of Fresh Air!
Review: Thank you Philip Yancy for this wonderful book. I'm reading it for the 3rd time and I get something new each time through. You write with a candor, authenticity and simplicity while maintaining a foundation of intellectual scholarship. Your writing reminds me of a current day C.S. Lewis the way that you write in "common venacular" about profound matters. Having written a book myself, I am awed by both the content and style of What's So Amazing About Grace. I have recommended it numerous times and continue to give it as a gift. Thank you for the challenges and encouragement I've found in this book.

Rating:
Summary: What's So Amazing About Grace?
Review: Philip Yancey. When I have doubts about an issue in the Bible
and am feeling very insecure. I usually find that Mr. Yancey may have had the same issue. The difference in him and myself
is that by the time I am worrying, he has found the answer and gives it to me in a way that I always understand. This book is a wonderful teaching tool. What would happen if we didn't have Grace? Except for the Grace of God!!!

I am so happy that we have Amazon.Com. My problem is I never have enough funds to buy everything all at once.

Rating:
Summary: Grace is medicine to clear the heart and soul
Review: This book is medicine for the heart and soul. It is extremely well written capturing your mind and spirit continuously from chapter to chapter. It is ideal for the person that is struggling with the fine lines between religion and politics, between the bible and man made rules, between purity and the current state of society. It brings it all back to a simple word that we all should practice, "Grace"

Rating:
Summary: Scandal of Grace
Review: Good people die saving bad people; terrorists leap from the tall grass and destroy useful lives while the useless go untouched.

And it all happens under the watchful eye of an all-knowing God. This is the "scandal of Grace" that God sees fit to shed grace on the just and unjust in seemingly random patterns.

This book literally changed my life; revolutionzied my thinking and generally shook-me-up from head to toe.

As a long time Christian that long ago "walked away" from the Church and tried even harder to walk away from God, this book didn't just humble me; it pummeled me.

You, me, none of us deserves God's grace, yet he gives it freely, almost wantonly. And yet we humiliate Him every day. But His grace never comes with conditions; never comes with rules or laws. In fact, you can't earn or give it way.

I found myself doing "the right thing" because it was just the thing to do. I started doing "the gracious thing" no matter where I was: car, office, home, grocery store.

Don't read this book if you're not willing to change because it will make you change.

Rating:
Summary: Copycat?
Review: A book definitely worth reading. It reminds me a lot of the book, "The Jefferson Bible", which is Thomas Jefferson's version of what he thinks the Bible should stress. Could this be a little bit of a copycat version? (...) "What's So Amazing About Grace" comes into clear focus for EVERYONE. It becomes inclusive of ALL God-fearing and religious people. You'll see.