Goodreads Rating = 4.24 Philip Yancey, whose explorations of faith have made him a guide for millions of readers, feels no need to defend the church. “When someone tells me yet another horror story about the church, I respond, ‘Oh, it’s even worse than that. Let me tell you my story.’ I have spend most of my life in recovery from the church.” Yancey acknowledges that many spiritual seekers find few answers and little solace in the institutional church. “I have met many people, and heard from many more, who have gone through a similar process of mining truth from their religious past: Roman Catholics who flinch whenever they see a nun or priest, former Seventh Day Adventists who cannot drink a cup of coffee without a stab of guilt, Mennonites who worry whether wedding rings give evidence of worldliness.” How did Yancey manage to survive spirituality despite early encounters with a racist, legalistic church that he now views as almost cultic? In this, his most soul-searching book yet, he probes that very question. He tells the story of his own struggle to reclaim belief, interwoven with inspiring portraits of notable people from all walks of life, whom he calls his spiritual directors. Soul Survivor is his tribute to thirteen remarkable individuals, mentors who transformed his life and work. Besides recalling their effect on him, Yancey also provides fresh glimpses of the lives and faith journeys of each one. From the scatterbrained journalist GK Chesterton to the tortured novelists Tolstoy and Dostoevsky to contemporaries such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Annie Dillard, and Robert Coles, Yancey gives inspiring portraits of those who modeled for him a life-enhancing rather than life-consuming faith.

ISBN: 9780385502740