Vanishing Grace: Whatever Happened to the Good News
Philip Yancey is a guilty pleasure. The John Grisham of broad evangelicalism, his books are eminently readable and winsomely persuasive and this volume is no exception. Vanishing Grace is the follow up to 1997’s bestselling What’s So Amazing About Grace.
This second book is similar in many ways: it isn’t a theological treatise on grace as such but rather a description of the impact of grace on the Christian life. It is practical apologetics enacted through story. Yancey’s focus in this volume is to challenge the hegemony of truth over love in the American evangelical church. But it is not a call for charity at the expense of clarity; whilst Yancey does not nail his colours to the mast over some key doctrines and can be slippery in places, he is keen to remain orthodox.
The book is in four parts – Yancey describes it as four books – i) the church’s failure to show grace; ii) the models of pilgrim, activist and artist to assist in responding to this; iii) the poverty of alternative worldviews; and iv) how should a Christian engage graciously with the world. Each of these sections are eruditely unpacked and reference a bewildering breadth of reading as well as his trademark stories. He references Keller and Volf alongside Alain de Botton and Naguib Mahfouz. Yancey is often convincing: evangelicals are too often hated for our tone rather than our message as such. We need to learn to be more winsomely persuasive and Yancey is a model example in this – his genuine friendships with those of all walks of life demonstrate his commitment to his message. His call to reclaim the arts as a Christian endeavour is also welcome.
There were sections of the book where I had doubts, disagreed or simply felt Yancey was theologically out of his depth (that is more of a comment on the complexity of the issues he was grappling with than on Yancey himself). His engagement with Niebuhr’s Christ and Culture was a weaker point in my mind. None of this takes away from the force of his argument and his clarion call to show grace to a watching world.
The telling part is whether he has been listened to. What’s So Amazing About Grace was recommended by Packer and Chuck Colson (amongst others) and sold in bucketloads; this volume is recommended by Bono, Brian McLaren, Shane Claibourne and Steve Chalke and has sold more modestly. And that is a shame. We would do well to listen to Yancey’s prophetic voice and reflect on his message. Whilst I did not enjoy this anywhere near as much as the original, this was an enjoyable and yet challenging read.