5. Philip Yancey | What Good is Disappointment?

Philip Yancey is one of the most compelling and popular Christian authors of our time. But the Church has not always been good him: growing up in Atlanta included absorbing the confidently racist doctrine his childhood pastor distributed from the pulpit. At one point, an inability to reconcile his experiences with the Christianity he was brought up to practice caused Yancey to abandon the faith. Yancey is not free from the pangs of doubt and disappointment today, but he gathers courage from the selfless love played out in people like Dr. Paul Brand, a medical doctor who dedicated his life to treating leprosy. In this episode’s conversation, Philip Yancey and Language of God host Jim Stump discuss rediscovering faith after messy first encounters, disappointment with the state of the world, and stepping into a life colored with hope.

Philip Yancey, author of books like Disappointment with God, The Jesus I Never Knew, and What’s So Amazing About Grace, is one the best selling Christian authors alive today. Early experiences in a toxic church environment as well as co-authoring several books with Dr. Paul Brand inform his writing on faith, the problem of pain, and unexpected grace. He holds graduate degrees in Communications and English from Wheaton College and the University of Chicago. Yancey lives in Colorado as a freelance writer and avid hiker.

Find a conversation about this episode at the BioLogos Forum.