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Summary: HELPED MY SPIRITUAL LIFE DEVELOP
Review: I am a christian and have been for many years now. However, after reading this book I view the world and life differently. I tend to take more notice of God's handiwork and creation after reading this book. The most important thing the book did for me was help me come to terms with what's important in this life: SERVING GOD AND LIVING FOR THE NEXT WORLD HERE AND NOW! Not living for temporary happiness and material satisfaction in this temporary planet we dwell in. Though I was aware of this before, it really hit home and helped cement this into my thinking.
Thank you Phillip Yancey for your wonderful insight!
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Summary: Made me a thinker
Review: I really love this book! I haven't read a book in awhile that provoked such thinking on my way of life on this earth and the forces of another world. It really made me analyize my contributions or lack of. It also made me very grateful for those who really reach for a heaven on earth.
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Summary: i love books written by philip yancy
Review: In a world full of lust and greed, in a culture fed by media ideals, life seems to be more hurried and confusing. Shouldn't it be the other way around? Shouldn't technology relieve our load? Shouldn't tolerance eradicate war and conflict?Yancey refuses to back away from life's tough issues. Tackling them from an intellectual perspective, he doesn't offer easy answers. Yancey writes clearly and with well-managed words. He pulls back the curtain to reveal his own weaknesses and struggles. Along the way, he tunes our ears to the hints and rumors of a world to come. He puts thing in perspective. Pointing to the very restlessness of man's soul, Yancey offers hope in the belief of a second reality, a spiritual reality. He suggests that we are caught in a tension between two worlds--the temporal and eternal. I'm impressed by Yancey's usage of historical snippets and recent research to turn up the volume of these spiritual rumors. Like C.S. Lewis before him, Yancey helps us face the evidence of a God who has created us with a purpose and a destination. Mere Christianity is all about learning to see how this life coincides with the one to come. After reading Yancey, I'm inclined to believe the rumors.
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Summary: Yancey meanders casually before delivering yet again.
Review: Reading a Yancey book is always an enjoyable experience for me, because of the conversational tones and quiet and unassuming, yet consistently convicting, insights he reveals. This time around my first impression was that he had missed the mark, a follow up read to finish the book months later gave me an entirely different perspective. I was originally not impressed with the first several chapters, because while it was insightful as always, it was missing the emotional connection of his previous works, and I felt as though I had "heard this all before". The premise is his delve into the dichotomy of the two worlds Christians live in: one the physical world, a world full of desires, and fleeting and ultimately unimportant wants, and the other a spiritual world where we place our sights on things of immeasurable value from an eternal perspective. Obviously, this is not a new topic, but he looks closely in his usual unique perspective, at the various ways the things we encounter everyday reflect this dichotomy. While interesting, it didn't hit on any emotional cylinders for me, and so I put the book down and moved on without finishing. Months later, after unpacking from a move, I found the book, and threw it my suitcase to finish on a plane. I picked it up in Chapter 12, where he looks into the life of the famous "Elephant Man". So powerful is the imagery and the contrast between the grotesque outward appearance and horrific treatment he endured and the rich, simple, and deeply loving personality of this man, that the message hit home. How do we "see" that which is real, behind or between the exterior illusions? From then on the book hit wonderful chords and sparked yet again the wonder and soul inspiring visionary impact Yancey is known for. I quickly read the book again, and the pieces came together. Like all of his work, Yancey creates emotional imagery by juxtaposing a variety of source material and overlaying it on a theme. One powerful illustration was how he feels when returning to "home" after a trip out in the wilderness or to a foreign exotic location: "The first day back, modern culture betrays itself as a self-evident lie, a grotesque parody of the day to day life I know. The next day my reactions moderate. A few days later I am breathing the air of lust, consumerism, selfishness and ambition, and it seems normal". This is a wonderful glimpse at the way the current world obscures the spiritual. Yancey delivers yet again. Highly recommended, even if you have to start with chapter 12 as I did to get to the heart of the issue. Keep writing Phillip, but perhaps look closer at editing, your work is too good to be discarded by too casual an entrance to such an important subject.
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Summary: I like it
Review: Are you one of the many people searching for more signs of heaven here on earth? In Rumors of Another World, Philip Yancey, the prolific writer of Christian non-fiction, aims to help readers grasp the reality of the heavenly kingdom ruled by God.
Yancey offers a contemplative, intelligently written commentary of the tensions between the spiritual and the physical, heaven and earth, good and evil, the seen and the unseen, and faith and unbelief. The book flows steadily as Yancey cogently addresses topics that fall into three main categories: 1) What are We Missing? 2) Signs of Disorder, and 3) Two Worlds. According to Yancey's note, he writes this book for people who live in the borderlands between belief and doubt. In the book, Yancey thinks aloud to answer questions such as "Is the visible world around us all there is?" Yancey describes himself as being, at times, a "reluctant Christian, buffeted by doubts and `in recovery' from bad church encounters." For himself and the readers, he explains why he believes in Jesus and the invisible spiritual realm. I have not read a contemporary Christian writer that incorporates such a plethora of references as Yancey does in this book. Highlights include quotes by C.S. Lewis, Thomas Merton, Milton, T.S. Eliot, Einstein, William James, Blaise Pascal, and many more poets, philosophers, authors and saints. Perhaps the most effective reference covers several pages devoted to the story of John Merrick, the Elephant Man. Yancey discusses Ashley Montagu's poignant book, The Elephant Man, illustrating how Merrick remained a gentle, compassionate human despite the brutal treatment he received at the hands of most of the people he encountered during his brief life. Yancey uses the story to show how heaven reveals itself in the most unusual places, where we least expect to witness the divine. Yancey emphasizes other points by interspersing similar analogies throughout the book. Yancey draws on his experiences in nature from around the globe, his interactions with people in the United States and other countries, and his positive and negative interactions in churches. These stories combined with the many references serve to elucidate Christian perspectives on day-to-day activities and on spiritual conundrums. One of the most intriguing chapters compares the world's versus the Christian's attitude toward sex, and another looks at the conflicting ideas of the "good life." Although the book fails to deliver a crescendo, it coherently provides logical reasons to believe in the substance of the Christian worldview and, most importantly, in the presence of a loving and caring God. I think Yancey's writing is a gift to modern readers so that we might see past the titillating distractions of our world to the eternal spiritual realm. Yancey draws from many impressive thinkers to articulate a persuasive defense of the gospel. This book is ideal for the skeptic and the fundamentalist, as it serves to strengthen a reader's faith and to soften his or her heart.
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