Download Soul Survivor: How My Faith Survived the Church AudioBook Free
Philip Yancey, whose explorations of faith have made him helpful information for an incredible number of readers, feels you don't need to defend the church. "When someone informs me just one more horror story about the church, I respond, 'Oh, it's a whole lot worse than that. Let me tell you my story.'I have spent the majority of my entire 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 off their religious past: Roman Catholics who flinch whenever they visit a nun or priest, former Seventh Day Adventists who cannot drink a sit down elsewhere with out a stab of guilt, Mennonites who worry whether wedding rings give evidence of worldliness."
How did Yancey have the ability to survive spiritually despite early encounters with a racist, legalistic church that he now views as almost cultic? In this particular, his most soul-searching book yet, he probes that very question. He tells the storyline of his own battle 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 impressive individuals, mentors who transformed his life and work.
Besides recalling their influence on him, Yancey also provides fresh glimpses of the lives and faith journeys of each one. From the scatterbrained journalist G. K. 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 these who modeled for him a life-enhancing rather than life-constricting faith.
"I became a writer, I now believe, to sort out and reclaim words used and misused by the Christians of my youth," Yancey says. "They are the people who ushered me in to the Kingdom. In lots of ways they can be why I remain a Christian today, and I wish to introduce them to other spiritual seekers."
Soul Survivor offers illuminating insights that will enrich the lives of veteran believers and cautious seekers alike. Yancey's own story, unveiled here as nothing you've seen prior, is a beacon for those who seek to rejuvenate their faith, and for those who are still desiring something to trust.
