The full sweep

Thoughtful, honest. The sections where he recounts the hijinks of kids trying to get through the hours and hours of church made me laugh out loud as I listened. I found myself nodding and smiling through descriptions of church services as seen through the eyes of a young boy, then sadly sighing as I listened other passages. I have read and been blessed by a few books by this author. It was instructive to get an idea of the background that informed them. Also, I loved the comparison between church and family, "a dysfunctional cluster of needy people." Seems like a working definition. I plan to read this one again soon, and will probably revisit his earlier titles.

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Do not miss this book!

Philip Yancey is a treasure… equal parts artist, observer, theologian, pilgrim. His story is a gripping, gutting guide for anyone who grew up in American evangelicalism and is today trying to come to terms with the ways it formed them. My experience was not as conservative as his, but the themes resonated and I found myself frequently stopping to let my own emotions freely flow. Yancey’s journey and the honesty with which he writes and recounts has given me much needed encouragement to keep going in the walk of faith. His reading/performance is exquisite and makes the narrative burst to life. I will be thinking about this book for a long time … don’t miss it!

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Achingly Honest

Most of us have a story to tell. Although this isn’t one of the worst stories, it is told with such honesty that I sit here thankful for a God who gave Mr. Yancy the ability to write it.

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The most beautiful book I've read this year

I Had never realised that Yancey had such humble beginnings. His insight, his intellectualism and his articulate delivery give the impression that he has upper-middle class roots.
But no. He lived in a "trailer" for years as he grew up.
In this book, he has been so very vulnerable in the description of his life.
There are some heart-wrenching details, so if you're the type, have some Kleenex handy. But these very personal anecdotes are not gratuitous. They seem to be in the book because the story necessitates it. Without them, the resulting sanitised version would be inauthentic.
I recognise something I see in myself. That one is able to witness so much wrong in the church - to see the evil perpetrated by Christians - and yet believe that God is - and that God is love. That one is able to witness all that Yancy did and still defend the faith publicly in one's speaking and writing.
But its not all grim. Far from it. Yancey has an ability to draw humour out of that which we usually consider routine, everyday life.
The chapter on the South - especially if you listen to the Audible version - is well worth the price of the whole book. He had me laughing alone in my car.

As Yancey grew and matured, he recognised the lie he had been brought up in. He found the truth about racial inequality and the fallacy behind the "lost cause". It begs a question that I've asked so many times in the past, when I encounter people like Phil Yancey. The question is, how is it that they are able to see the obvious evil for what it is, when so many others of his demographic are simply blind to it?

All in all, this has been one of the most moving books I've read. It's now no wonder to me that Philip Yancey has written so many books that ask the most challenging questions. Books that explain the pain in life, as well as the grace of God and the joy in living.

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Beautifully written.

Breathtaking honesty and compassionate grace woven together as a “prequel,” as he calls it, to all his other books. Highly recommend.

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Excellent Narration by Yancey

Longer Summary: A memoir of coming out of a fundamentalist, racists, and abusive upbringing. One reviewer described this as a prequel to his other books on grace and suffering. 

There are few names in Christian publishing that are more recognizable than Philip Yancey. He started his career writing for Campus Life and Christianity Today but became widely known for his books, most reflections on suffering and/or grace. Yancey has written about 30 books, depending on how you count books he contributed to or edited. And he has sold roughly 15 million copies of those books. He has been widely influential.

Philip Yancey is part of my parent's generation, turning 72 next month, and I think it is natural for authors to think about memoirs and influences at that point. It is not that younger authors can't also write memoirs; Danté Stewart's Shoutin' in the Fire is an excellent reflection of an author in his 30s. But memoirs that are written toward the end of life have a different type of reflective ability.

Where the Light Fell primarily deals with Yancey's childhood and early adulthood before he became a writer. This is a book about what influenced him with a final chapter that grapples with that history, one that I read twice. The book is unflinching but charitable. There is a lot of pain here. And a clear view of the impact of generational trauma. Yancey is not a Christian author that tends to tie everything up in neat bows. At the end, there is still pain and disfunction.

Philip Yancey was the youngest of two children, born in 1949, three years after his older brother. His parents had what appears to be a storybook romance. His father was in the military at the end of WWII. He was invited to the home of a church member after attending church soon after becoming a Christians. His mother was living with that family while supporting herself through college to become a teacher. They met and soon married. He soon became wrapped up with her dream of becoming a missionary to Africa. They finished bible school, and he taught at a black bible college in Atlanta as they raised support. But soon after Philip was born, his father contracted polio and died before Philip had a conscious memory of him.

It was only in his 20s while introducing his wife to his grandparents, that Philip saw a newspaper article that changed his understanding of that death. The article talked about how his father had left Grady Hospital, where he was in an iron lung, and went to a chiropractic rehabilitation center because he believed that he would be miraculously healed so that the family could go to Africa as missionaries. Unfortunately, days after leaving the iron lung, he died. Not long later, his widowed mother committed the two boys to be missionaries in Africa as a kind of consolation for the loss of her dream. She raised the boys in a strict fundamentalist holiness tradition. Her meager widow's pension was supplemented by bible teaching, both paid and unpaid roles.

Yancey is generous to his mother in many ways. Providing context to not just the difficult circumstances but also the culture and family history of his mother's upbringing and deprivation. But there is no question that this was an abusive household, primarily with tools of emotional and spiritual abuse. But within the context of overt racist, hierarchical theology and confrontational KJV-only fundamentalism. In being generous to his contexts, he does not shy away from the implications and harms of that background. Nor does he shy away from grappling with his complicity in racism or cruelty toward others.

Part of what his life of grappling with pain and suffering has meant is that grace is essential because we are in a world of suffering and pain. But grace does not mean that everything gets fixed. His still-living 96-year-old mother has never read any of his books. She still believes that Philip and his brother have sinned against God by not becoming missionaries as she desired. His brother has not directly talked to his mother in nearly 40 years, with only a few letters back and forth and Philip as an intermediary. His brother rejected Christianity in his 20s still identifies as an atheist.

The strength of Where the Light Fell is in the grappling, not just the story. Yancey is a talented writer. The book is gripping and challenging to put down. But the value isn't only the prose; it is also the theological reflection that seeks out grace even when it is hard to see.

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How did he not only survive, but flourish after all that?

Courageous. Brutally Honest. Artfully Told. Touches many issues of life. Yancey’s story speaks to skeptic, seeker, and believer. His own narration brings you inside Phillip’s life, as if you are personal friend, listening while he reviews his saga in vulnerable and poetic detail.

Powerful and humbling

A powerful yet humbling story on the author's return to Faith and the struggles within his family

A vivid and beautiful true life story

Philip Yancey has given us the backstory to so many of his meaningful books. His creative details paint word pictures that kept me reading and hoping and praying for reconciliation! I can’t recommend this book enough!!

Grace

Even after listening to an interview with Mr. Yancy regarding this book, I was not prepared for the depth of abuse I would hear; and abuse is the only appropriate word. I stopped listening several times only to pick it up once again. I remembered “What’s So Amazing About Grace?” and believed I would soon hear ‘Grace’ in the words. Only at the end did it come…it took too long to hear.