Where the Light Fell: A Memoir by

Philip Yancey

Available from amazon.co.uk priced £9.95

Continuing an occasional series, Captain Callum McKenna recommends a book for reflection and discussion

THIS might be the year of the autobiography, although my first read of 2023 is perhaps less controversial than some other recently released memoirs. One of the first books I remember really nurturing my discipleship was What’s So Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey. It was a well-crafted masterpiece of theological truths, which set my imagination ablaze for what living a Christian life might be all about. So I was curious to pick up Yancey’s latest book, Where the Light Fell, for a glimpse into the life of the person behind such an influential work.

It’s clear that where we come from profoundly shapes who we are. In the first part of the book Yancey reflects with humour, candour and a tinge of melancholy on his roots in the USA’s Deep South. I took comfort in the way that these roots were presented: not neat and tidy but a complex web of less-thanperfect factors that shaped Yancey into the leader and teacher he is.

Yancey’s family life was complex. He recounts his father’s death caused by polio when he discharged himself from an ‘iron lung’, believing in faith that he would be divinely healed. His religious life was complex, bearing all the hallmarks of fundamentalist Christianity and orchestrated by his dominant mother. His social life was complex, taking place against the backdrop of the civil rights movement and racial segregation. Much of the first half of the book deals with disappointment, disillusionment and doubt, as Yancey the adolescent tries to square his faith with a divided and conservative social context.

The book’s second half offers a glimpse into the kind of faith and character augured by such roots. Some might call this a ‘deconstructed faith’, as Yancey grows tired and frustrated with the platitudes of his inherited Christianity and describes his longing for an authentic experience of God, but I think this is possibly too simplistic. This is a book full of honesty and self-awareness, a book that will appeal to those who want to eschew easy answers to life’s biggest questions, one that embraces the complexity of the things that shape us into who we are and one that gently testifies to the reliability of God’s grace.

CLOSE-UP READING

CHAPTER 7: CHURCH (p69)

‘Nothing plagues me more than the question of whether I am really saved. I’ve said the Sinner’s Prayer so many times that I can spell it backwards. I go forward, and get prayed over by church elders while I keep my hands clasped together and my eyes squinched shut. I do it again, several times, afraid salvation is like a vaccination that might not take. Still, I can never silence the nagging questions: Do I really mean it? Is it genuine?’

Here, Yancey considers his childhood introduction to Christianity in quite a fundamentalist context. His questions will, I’m sure, resonate with many Christians as they have come to grapple with what it means to have a ‘personal’ faith.

Reflect And Discuss

How has your own faith changed over time?

CLOSE-UP READING

CHAPTER 21: CONTACT (p245)

‘In slow motion, I watch Jesus reach down with a moistened rag to clean my wounds and staunch the flow of blood. As he bends toward me, I see myself, the wounded victim of a crime […] I have caught a new and humbling glimpse of myself. In my arrogance, maybe I’m the neediest one of all.’

Yancey is reflecting here on his first ‘authentic religious experience’ aged 20. He’s recounting a moment at Bible college when he initiates a discussion about the parable of the good Samaritan. As he argumentatively reflects on the story with his peers, he has a lightbulb moment in which he sees himself as the wounded man on the Jericho road, rather than the Samaritan hero of the story he had previously identified with.

Reflect And Discuss

How has the Bible spoken to you and shaped your discipleship?