Rating: 
Summary: The Jesus all should know
Review: I was introduced to Philip Yancey in this book. I made a promise to myself to learn more about who Jesus really was as a "new year's resolution". I started reading the Gospels and reading secular work. I picked up this book and realized how Jesus is many times put in a box. We see a happy, handsome, victorious, courageous savior when the bible describes him as a suffering, nothing to attract us to him, lonely, weeping savior. Yancey helps us realize the humility of Jesus to come in the flesh and suffer for us. I thought I knew Jesus till I read Yancey's work. I recommend this book to all who "think" they know Jesus and those who are seeking to know him.
Rating: 
Summary: Not accurate at all
Review: Why is there a white guy on the cover of this book? What does this have to do with Jesus? This book is for rascists.
Rating: 
Summary: A Life Changing Book
Review: A great book. Literally a must for every library. Phillip Yancey has a wonderful way of illustrating his words with fresh, presise and modern illustrations. I could not put it down. I read it from cover to cover in one day. The next day, I ordered every book he has written. Never have I read an author that has kept me riveted to my seat as he. I had never experienced the look at Christ before he presented it. It made me more prayful, less self condeming and more eager to serve in my witness.
Rating:
Summary: A five-plus star rating
Review: Five stars is too low a rating for this book. The Jesus I Never Knew is a WONDERFUL introduction to Jesus. In this book, Philip Yancy takes a look at what the Gospels reveal about the life, teachings, and meaning of Jesus, simply and factually. For the most part, Yancy allows the Gospels to speak for themselves, but on occasion, he offers his interpretation. The resulting portrait is of a man/divine being we can't help but love.
Rating: 
Summary: So-So Gospel Explication
Review: Yancey's "The Jesus I Never Knew" offers a range of quotations dealing with the nature and purpose of Jesus Christ, and an insistent method of Gospel explication, but not much more than either. Though he tries to set aside the disputes of strictly academic theology - Yancey ends up merely replacing one set of opinionated, trend following authors with another, 19th and 20th century poets and novelists. Are Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Endo, Flannery O'Connor, Hopkins, Updike, or Chesterton any less interested in or invested in promoting certain ideological portraits of Jesus Christ than modern degree-holding theologians? Or are they simply easier to use in this kind of non-academic project? It becomes a little distracting after a while to have extracts from novels and poems explicated and analysed alongside the Gospels. Yancey's reading of the Gospels is fairly average. There is nothing particularly new here - although the need he stresses to remove Jesus Christ and his Message from ideologically loaded political and ecclesiastical structures that often envelope it is well-emphasized and of critical importance. I was somewhat disappointed in his discussion of the physical Jesus Christ that we get no further than that he was probably 'short'. The image that graces the cover of the book itself seems only to support the physical image Yancey is trying to correct, that of a handsome white man (which even Yancey acknowledges is absurd). Yancey's most provocative moments occur when he starts giving a sort of spiritual autobiography - for instance, his youthful racism, and his longing for the social world of the 1950's are particularly telling - if these moments were expanded and developed to replace the more haphazard literary allusions, perhaps this book would convey a little more urgency. Yancey's confessed approach is as a journalist, but there is little of the impartial observer here - Yancey's reporting of the life and message of Jesus Christ tells us as much, if not more, about Yancey as it does about Christianity. This is the most fascinating part of reading this book. I think the most important thing Yancey is trying to convey in this book is the image of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ in which people strive to be perfect, but can rely on faith in God's grace to dull the pain of imperfection. Yancey's methods in relaying this message in this particular book are occasionally suspect, but the message manages to come across.
Rating:
Summary: A New Kind of Jesus
Review: Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know. A hymn sung so often by so many in church, but how sweet was the name of Jesus to people in the first century? For that matter, how much of Jesus in churches today is the Jesus of the first century. Phillip Yancey takes a hard look at Jesus in the New Testament, the real source of our ideas about Jesus, and tries to paint a picture of the man who is both simple in his message and yet complex in his actions. Even if you don't agree with everything Yancey says, he will make you think about your ideas of Jesus, and maybe introduce you to a new kind of Jesus, a Jesus that you never even knew. Also recommended: The NIV Knowing Jesus Study Bible.
Rating:
Summary: The Jesus We Should All Know
Review: Winner of the Book of the Year award, here Yancey peels back the layers of pre-concieved notions about Jesus and presents a fresh vision of Christ; who He is, why He came, what He taught. The pictures he presents are sometimes surprising. Prepare to have your Sunday-school-bred ideas on the character of Christ challenged and take a new look at the Lord and his relevance to our modern world. What's So Amazing About Grace is Yancey's best-ever work, but here he also reaches into five-star territory. A fantastic read.
Rating:
Summary: A challenge to many Christians
Review: Yancey has written a book that is not a scholarly publication by any means, but soars far above many of the writings that claim to be Christian these days. There are many books on Jesus, some comingup with new and shocking "findings" that each contradict each other since the authors seem to create a Jesus that makes them most comfortable. Or a Jesus that can be so shocking and controvertial that they can sell their books. I suppose, in the end, that makes them comfortable too! Yancey bypasses such attempts and truly tries to re-examine our conceptions of Jesus but does not stray fromthe historical faith. The Jesus he describes sticks to the biblical canon - source that is powerful enough to make us squirm. For this Jesus that he uncovers is by no means easy to understand. He is a complex figure, yet still Lord and still knowable. There is unease and comfort at the same time in this. At times, a part of me wishes that Yancey would address some of the challenges to the orthodox Jesus (e.g., The Jesus Seminar), but perhaps he is wise not to. His writing at times can be a bit flowery and melodramatic, but it did not stop me from reading it twice anyway! I can only bewail the fact that this is a rarity in Christian writing.
Rating:
Summary: Couldnt put it down...
Review: I own a 2nd hand book store, and look at over 600 new books everyday.. As a Christian I am often amazed at what passes for "good reading". Philip Yancy has written a book, that is both well written, and easy to understand and follow. This is not another "self help" book thinly described as "Christian", this is a book about Jesus, the one we all should be looking to and studying. With excellent study and a straight to the point way, Yancy packs more information than the "average" christian today can absorb in one sitting.. He will take you back to what Jesus really said he was, and what kind of life he really lead. Be prepared to step out of your safe zone, and see what he meant when he asked "Who do you say I am?".. We have also used it in a bible study, and gave copies to our friends..
Rating: 
Summary: good book but not enough substance
Review: i enjoyed reading the book one time but on the second pass i found that the only part i was really intrigued by was the chapter about the sermon on the mount. in general i would say the book is full of insight but the reader has to wade through a lot of fluff.
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