Rating: 
Summary: Worth the Read
Review: "How can I fit together my religious past with my spiritual present?" "What allowed me to ransom a personal faith from the damaging effects of religion?" "How have I changed because of my contact, direct or indirect, with this baker's dozen?"
These are the questions that Yancey answers in his book "Soul Survivor." Because of the scars left from his childhood religious community he presents to the world 13 people who have impacted his faith-life and who have led him to a further desire for Jesus. Some of the people presented are Christians and some are not, all are flawed as human examples of faith but he shows his readers their worth.I admit that after struggling to read "The Jesus I Never Knew" I was not looking forward to choking down this book. I admire Yancey's point of view when he writes and I find him to be very thoughtful, even original, but I liken his writing style to that of a long winded preacher who doesn't know when to make his point and then move on. (I tend to wonder if a chapter will ever end.) Although I found his style to be the same in "Soul Survivor" I was riveted by the people that he writes about and was thoroughly hooked into this book by the second chapter. (Something that never happened for me with "The Jesus I Never Knew.") As a journalist, Yancey's life has allowed him to come in contact with quite a few people. In "Soul Survivor" he presents the 13 people that have most influenced his faith beginning with the very well known Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi, to the not so well known people like Dr. Cole Brand or Henri Nouwen. Yancey presents each person as an exposition of Christian faith in one way or another. I wondered what the Mahatma Gandhi chapter was going to be about. How could I possibly be inspired from Gandhi (A non-Christian)? However, Yancey skillfully presents what is inspirational about the man and has helped me to look at Gandhi through glasses of inspiration rather than a pure Biblical rationale. I also thought that reading about infamous people like Dr. Paul Brand would be an exercise in the boring but Yancey's portrayal of him helps me to appreciate him too. (It is actually my favorite chapter in the book.) I was deeply challenged by what I read because the people that he chose to write about are truly inspirational. I knew that each human Yancey presented was sinful in their own way (he admits as much) but I knew if I could harness their areas of individual excellence into my own Christian life then Jesus would have a champion among his people. I found myself deeply challenged and provoked to repent for my short comings. After reading the "Soul Survivor" I realize, along with Yancey, that "I had not learned to love individuals." I read about people who in many ways are loathsome to the cause of Christ and I found myself in want to be as they were, or are. I learned that I think too highly of myself as a Christian and not highly enough of others. This epiphany alone made the book worth the read. All-in-all the book was good. It was typical of Yancey's style which is not to my preference, but it may be to yours. It is worth reading; and I dare say, worth re-reading.
Rating: 
Summary: A Wonderfully Strange Book
Review: Part biographical sketches, part autobiography, this is a wonderfully strange book. Philip Yancey grew up in a strict Baptist home in the 60's, abandoned Christianity because of its hypocrisy, and then gradually returned to the faith of his youth, but not the religious trappings that he had been told went with faith in Christ. This book is a story of his journeyings, and of the people who influenced him through their writings and life. This book is not for those who feel uncomfortable with God loving & using people who are not "perfect spiritual specimens", or whose walk with God may be very different than typical evangelical Christianity. This book will stretch you & challenge you to look at Christ & Christians & Christianity in a deeper way.
Rating:
Summary: Flawed but Still Good
Review: There should really have been two books here. Yancey should have written one book about his journey to overcome the scars inflicted on him by a Pharisaical church upbringing, and he should have written one book about the people who have influenced his life as a Christian. His attempt to force these two separate books together just doesn't always work. He often goes off on digressions that don't apply to the main theme of the book. The second half of the book applies more to his development as a writer than to his attempts to "survive the church." It's just not a well-conceived book. Additionally, he wrote a terrible preface to this paperback edition that even contradicts some of the things he writes in the book.
All that said, there was a lot to like about the book. Even if his choices of mentors didn't always make sense within the context of the book, he did choose some extraordinary people to write odes to, and he brings forth a number of insights that he gained from them. Many of his chapters are very moving, such as the ones on Paul Brand, Gandhi, and Robert Coles. I also enjoyed his tributes to some of my favorite writers such as Buechner, Dillard, Tolstoy, Endo, Chesterton, and Donne. In choosing these men and women to write about, Yancey's had chosen material too good for him to go too far wrong on. My advice is to read the book and take the wonderful things that are in here, and ignore the structure and the preface. Despite its flaws, Soul Survivor is an easily-read book with a lot to like.
Rating:
Summary: Not just surviving -- engaging something deeper.
Review: The subtitle reveals what awaits: "How Thirteen Unlikely Mentors Helped My Faith Survive the Church". And yet it may not be what you expect. I had heard good things among mixed reviews of Yancey's work but had not before read any of his offerings. Having read between the lines, so to speak, I anticipated that Yancey is not to be included among the homogenized surface-dwellers cranking out books on the spiritual life (Christian or otherwise). I was not disappointed. If you grew up in the influence of a church that couldn't practice what it preached (couldn't even preach it right, actually), and/or was preoccupied with its own right thinking and excellent doctrine, such that as a thinking person you questioned the whole thing, Philip Yancey is for you. He treats this problem in the first chapter and doesn't try to insulate himself from the unseemly, dogmatic side of 'fundamentalism', pointing out that his southern 'Christian' upbringing in the 50s and 60s taught him to be a bigot, a racist, a dogmatist, a narrow minded hater. If this leaves you a bit uncomfortable, Yancey succeeds in making his point. Wonderfully, this background leads, in the second chapter, into the life, thought, and work of Martin Luther King, Jr. If you only read the first two chapters, you will be better rewarded than in many entire books.
Some of these "mentors" influenced the author quite directly, that is, they are his friends and/or professional acquaintances (for example Paul Brand, Annie Dillard), some he encountered in their writings (Chesterton, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky), all changed the way he sees the world, himself, the Christian life (M.L. King, Jr). One was not a Christian (Mahatma Gandhi) but was more greatly influenced by many of Christ's teachings than were the narrow minded and self-sufficient Christians he most typically encountered.
Critics of the Christian faith sometimes insist that 'faith' must be rigid, unquestioning, blind, self-righteous, non-teachable, cold, smug, backward, etc. And there have long been examples for the critic to point to. On the other hand, Yancey and his "witnesses" stand against this view. And of course, there have always been those who's faith is not so conveniently belittled, we might begin in the pages of the Old Testament and move forward through likes of Clement, Origen, and Augustine, to the gentle, wise, humble, and often troubled witnesses of the present age.
The problems of blindness and arrogance are human problems, after all -- spiritual, intellectual, psychological, and not strictly Christian, per se. I can't say that I feel compelled to read another book in exactly this vein, Yancey's thesis here is sufficiently well presented and, I suspect, is something understood by many Christians who tend to quietly challenge the secular world's handy stereotypes (of Yancey's 'witnesses' we think of C. Everett Koop, for example).
Were his Christian faith called to trial, these are the witnesses Yancey would call to the bench. It is intriguing to think who would be on my list, and readers are invited to ponder this question. In summary, it's an excellent book about the life of faith, 'warts and all'. Yancey has nearly inspired me to return to Annie Dillard, and that's no minor thing.
Rating:
Summary: Yancey - Never disappoints
Review: I just finished reading "What's so Amazing About Grace" and this book is a great follow up. I grew up in Alabama going to churches similar to those described by Yancey and I am still trying to recover. The 13 biographical sketches in this book present inspiring details about the subjects but also allow the reader to see their human flaws as well. Read this book and learn about history, faith, and struggles of extraordinary people trying to live up to God's purpose for their lives.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: What I liked about it: stories of people struggling to figure out how to authentically answer the question "How then shall we live?" What set this book apart however, was its realness. All of the characters are presented with their tragic flaws. Thus, we're not left with any feeling of defeat ("oh how could we ever be perfect like they were"), instead we're challenged to recognize that each one of has the potential to effectively change our world on behalf of the gospel - and it would be best if we prayerfully consider in which ways God is leading us to do just that!
I was very moved by Yancey's personal struggle with Martin Luther King, Jr. I could identify with the evangelical skepticism of this man, having been brought up in a tradition with a lot of sidestepping when it came to civil rights. The man's foibles were too clear. Seeing how Yancey drew strength from his life (the good and the bad) helped me grow a much deeper appreciation myself.
Rating:
Summary: Honest and richly rewarding
Review: Must be read by all who struggle with living the life that we should. The chapter on John Donne - "as I lay dying" was particularly profound and I express posted it to a friend fighting his own battle with pain and death from urinary cancer. The quote "I have noticed that a lot of Christians tend to get very angry towards others who sin differently than they do" rings so so true - you need go no further than some of the negative reviews on this book. A great self-examination read.
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