Rating: 
Summary: Reclaiming the Heart of Jesus' Message
Review: An outstanding book. Given to me some years ago by a former pastor who was responsible for my conversion I was so thrilled in reading this book that I bought ten and gave them away to people as an aid to helping non Christians understand the central message of the book. Subsequently our study group used the video series and found it challenging too our understanding as to what it meant to be a Christian in a post Christian society.
A book for believers and unbelievers alike. Whilst some may be critical of Yancey for not taking a strong view on the homosexuality of his friend - is this not what the book is about? Accepting all people and showing them God's grace. It is ultimately their responsibility to repent - not ours to condemn and judge. Which is what the book is all about.
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: 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 best book I've read in years?
Review: For some unknown reason, I resisted Yancey's work for years. I'd see it on the shelf and go blechh!!!, having never read a word he wrote. Finally in desperation for something to read, I picked this up.
Later that night after a reading binge, I put the book down, finshed in one sitting. Ever since I've been haunted by one sentance. "There's nothing we can do to make God love us more, and there's nothing we can do to make God love us less. In that one sentence, Yancey hits the paradox of grace.
As people of faith we are caught between the demands of law and the gift of grace. As one reads scripture, it almost seems as if the biblical writers still had not resolved the balance for themselves. Yancey tries to negotiate the balance between the Jesus who offers himself in unconditional relationship with us and the same Jesus who says I didn't come to eliminate one line of the law. Yancey does this largely through stories that make grace seem really accessible and really costly.
If you were to buy one book for someone who wanted to know what it meant to be a Christian in the 21st century, grab this one and give it to them. I've already gone through 5 copies.
Rating:
Summary: Looking for Grace? Buy this book!
Review: I cannot fill enough space here with what Yancey's book did to help me in a real time of Christian struggle back in late 2000. A pastor friend of mine gave me a copy and ... well ... what I THOUGHT was all my neat, little "Jesus" beliefs already had been smashed to bits.
Yancey's book, along with Brennan Manning's "The Ragamuffin Gospel," helped begin to formulate, reshape and redefine a God of love, grace, mercy, compassion and acceptance of who I am as a human being today. No Promise Keepers lingo here, folks, in Yancey's book. No legalism. No "don't-do-this" list.
Yeah ... I recommend it. For those of the Christian faith, those of the spiritual journey, those looking for something to know inside that they are accepted and loved just as you are today.
Grace and peace to all.
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: Yancey's Definition of Grace
Review: It has some good parts, but this is a book with significant errors. I'm amazed at the adoring reviews by some of my friends, not to mention J.I. Packer. The main problem with this book is that Philip Yancey uses very poor definitions of words, namely Grace and Ungrace. He states in Chapter 1 that Grace is one word that "has not spoiled", but then goes on to describe grace and ungrace in ways that indicate that the word Grace has, indeed, lost its depth of meaning!
Yancey never defines grace or ungrace, but he gives examples of each. In Chapter 3, Yancey calls the marking of wrong answers on a test part of our "atmosphere of ungrace". Thus, according to him, even pointing out the truth is ungraceful. How can this be? Is not our God both full of truth and full of grace? Surely so. Yancey just has an incredibly simplified version of grace. Basically if something is nice and feels good, Philip Yancey calls it grace. If it makes someone uncomfortable, he's likely to brand it ungrace. And yet love, which must fit somewhere in his convoluted definition of grace, demands discomfort at times.
Yancey knew he would draw flak for his chapter on Mel White and homosexuality. So is he courageous for being willing to stand up to the controversy and criticism? I don't think so, because he's reluctant to stand up for truth. Many points in this chapter, mostly about the hateful treatment of homosexuals, are well made. But one very disturbing thing about this chapter is that Yancey never quite gets to the point of acknowledging that his friend is in continual, rebellious sexual sin. He kind of hints at still believing that practicing homosexuality is a sin, but it's still pretty ambiguous. This statement near the end seems to pretty much brush off Mel White's practices as "just like any of us": "In some ways we are all abominations to God ... and yet somehow, against all reason, God loves us anyhow."
I kept wondering through this chapter if Yancey is as graceful for other forms of sexual perversion. Would he be "supporting" a friend at a rally for the practices of polygamy, pedophilia, bestiality, adultery? Homosexuality is acceptable in the mainstream now, while other forms of sexual perversion are still questionable. I wonder if Yancey would still support a friend practicing something that both the world and the believers condemn.
I don't know what exactly kind of "grace" this is, but it sure doesn't seem to be real love. Love cannot allow a true Brother to knowingly continue in sin and defy God, all the while "supporting" him. Apparently Yancey does not believe in breaking fellowship (I Cor. 5:11). I find myself wondering this: Had Paul's words in I Corinthians 5, about removing the incestuous one from their midst, been written today, would Yancey hold them up in his book as an example of "ungrace"?
Yancey seems to misunderstand why the homosexuality issue carries so much weight. The Church is not picking on homosexuals. Rather, we've come to a point in the world where there's a significant gulf between popular morality and biblical morality. Those who timidly back away from calling homosexuality sexual perversion are rejecting clear biblical truth for fear of being rejected by the world. We absolutely need to minister to homosexuals inside and outside the church, but to virtually ignore the sin, as Yancey gets very close to doing, is not ultimately graceful at all. As John Piper said about those struggling with homosexual feelings, "Make sure it's a fight." Mel White just rolled over and gave up. To "support" him for divorcing his wife and following his desires is *not* grace.
Interestingly enough, one of the few times Yancey ever mentions the judgment side of God's great justice is in a part about Ananias and Sapphira. They tried to appear good and religious externally but had rotten hearts, Yancey tells us. But really, there seems to be an imbalance. His story about the prostitute renting out her infant daughter draws no mention of possible consequences, only serves to condemn us for being so ungraceful. But man, suddenly when we find two hypocrites, God's judgment rains down.
Let's be clear, Mr. Yancey: To be fake before men and God, that's a terrible sin. When someone who does that reaps death, that's righteous judgment. Punishment for sin in any case, in the light of God's perfect holiness, is nothing less than deserved and righteous judgment. It may not feel good or seem nice, but it's not ungrace. Real grace isn't us being nice to each other all the time, it's God's incredible lovingkindness to *spare* us from that judgment. Start with that definition and try again.
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: Just a So-So Effort
Review: Please, don't shoot the messenger. I am a Christian and not some anti-Christian trying to write a bad review. As for this book, I was immediately taken in when I read one critic on the back cover of the book state that it was the best book that he had ever read. Well, since I had read Yancey's "The Jesus I Never Knew" (Which I consider to be the greatest book ever written), then I was excited to read this book. Needless to say, I was disappointed. The book had its interesting moments, but never came close to living up to the hype. Just an average book. I love the concept of Grace and all, but this book didn't really do much for me. Yancey kind of lost his direction half way through. I finished the book only because I wanted to complete what I had finished. I'm not trying to offend anybody, rather, I want people to have a candid review.
Rating:
Summary: Just a So-So Effort
Review: Please, don't shoot the messenger. I am a Christian and not some anti-Christian trying to write a bad review. As for this book, I was immediately taken in when I read one critic on the back cover of the book state that it was the best book that he had ever read. Well, since I had read Yancey's "The Jesus I Never Knew" (Which I consider to be the greatest book ever written), then I was excited to read this book. Needless to say, I was disappointed. The book had its interesting moments, but never came close to living up to the hype. Just an average book. I love the concept of Grace and all, but this book didn't really do much for me. Yancey kind of lost his direction half way through. I finished the book only because I wanted to complete what I had finished. I'm not trying to offend anybody, rather, I want people to have a candid review.
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