Philip Yancey, an American journalist[3] based in Colorado,[4] was inspired to write a book about grace in Christianity when he went to the White House to interview President Bill Clinton. Clinton, a Southern Baptist from birth, told him, "I've been in politics long enough to expect criticism and hostility. But I was unprepared for the hatred I get from Christians. Why do Christians hate so much?"[1] Yancey later said that, although there are many reasons for Evangelical Christians to disapprove of Clinton's policies and lifestyle, hating him was not a valid option for Christians.[1]
The author was further prompted to write about grace when a friend told him about encountering a homeless prostitute in Chicago who began to cry as she told him that she had raised money for drugs by prostituting her two-year-old child. When Yancey's friend asked the woman if she had sought help at a local church, she answered, "Church? Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They'd just make me feel worse."[5] This story convinced Yancey that Christians are doing a poor job of communicating the message that God is willing to accept people, regardless of what they have done; the story haunted him, he said, because the woman was "the type of person who would have gone to Jesus. The more unrighteous a person was, the more comfortable they felt around Jesus".[5]
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Yancey researched the subject of grace, asking non-Christians what they associated with Evangelical Christianity. None of their responses mentioned grace; most cited political stances, such as opposition to LGBT rights and abortion.[6] The author initially intended to call his book What's So Amazing About Grace: and Why Don't Christians Show More of It? Zondervan, its eventual publisher, objected to the title's forcefulness, despite Yancey's argument that he wrote the book about how "we Christians are simply not known by the greatest gift we have".[2] On February 3, 1997, Christianity Today published an essay by Yancey, the magazine's editor-at-large,[7] with the title "A State of Ungrace", saying that it was the basis of two chapters of Yancey's upcoming book with the working title of What's So Amazing About Grace and Why the World Needs More of It.[8] The book was published later that year with the shorter title What's So Amazing About Grace?[9]
The author describes his experiences growing up in a church that, despite preaching about grace, did not demonstrate it to others; the church excluded African Americans, dismissed other Christians on the basis of slightly different beliefs, and depicted God as tyrannical and vengeful.[4] Yancey writes, "I grew up with the strong impression that a person became spiritual by attending to grey-area rules," and that church was a place to look good rather than be honest.[6] He contrasts the teachings of early Christians Pelagius and Augustine of Hippo on the subject of grace, with Pelagius believing that divine grace must be earned and Augustine contending that grace is a gift that cannot be earned. Pelagius was declared a heretic by his peers; Augustine was canonized. According to Yancey, many Christians follow Pelagius's teaching on grace during the week but espouse Augustine's on Sunday.[2]
David Charlesworth, Abbot of Buckfast Abbey in Devon, England, asked Torbay-based theatre company Unleashed Productions to perform a play based on the book. The play had been written by Neil Pugmire and previously performed in 2006 at the Greenbelt Festival. It incorporated stories about apartheid, Gordon Wilson's daughter's death in the Remembrance Day bombing, and Holocaust survivor Simon Wiesenthal. He also included a dramatization of the chapter "The Lovesick Father". Simon Zimmerman wrote the score for the play, which has a cast of nearly forty actors. The play, which took the name of the book, was successfully produced outdoors by Buckfast Abbey in 2010.[28] These outdoor performances were well-attended.[29] According to the Western Morning News, the play is "by turns shocking, humorous and moving, [and] explores how forgiveness and grace can be found in even the most testing circumstances".[28] A Herald Express reviewer called the play inspiring and probably the most unique and unusual in South Devon that summer.[30]
In a 1998 Presbyterian Record review, Canadian Christian writer Phil Callaway writes that What's So Amazing About Grace? made him "thankful afresh for God's grace and challenged to live a life reflecting it".[6] Callaway was haunted by Yancey's question, "If grace is so amazing, why don't Christians show more of it?"[6] and expressed his appreciation to the author at the 1998 Christian Booksellers Association convention. When he asked Yancey why he wrote the book, the author answered: "I long for the church to become a culture of grace ... A graceful church knows how to welcome failure and rewards vulnerability so that a person automatically thinks of the church when needing help."[6] Yancey asked Callaway if he thought the book would generate controversy, and Callaway said it would. Callaway asked Yancey why his book was so harsh in its description of Christians, and Yancey responded, "I'm picking on Christians because I am one".[6] Yancey said that he knew many gracious Christians and that secular culture was filled with examples of ungrace, including media manipulation of body image and the belief that "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch", which contradicts the concept of undeserved grace from God as taught in Christianity.[6]
In the family the proper mean between severity and indulgence ought to prevail. Too great severity toward one's own flesh and blood leadsto remorse. The wise thing is to build strong dikes within which completefreedom of movement is allowed each individual. But in doubtful instancestoo great severity, despite occasional mistakes, is preferable, becauseit preserves discipline in the family, whereas too great weakness leadsto disgrace.
This refers to a man who has come out of needy circumstances in to comfort and freedom from want. If now, in the manner of an upstart, he tries to take his ease in comfortable surroundings that do not suit his nature, he thereby attracts robbers. If he goes on thus he is sure tobring disgrace upon himself. Confucius says about this line:
If great help comes to a man from on high, this increased strength must be used to achieve something great for which he might otherwisenever have found energy, or readiness to take responsibility. Great goodfortune is produced by selflessness, and in bringing about great goodfortune, he remains free of reproach. Six in the second place means:
11, six in the fifth place). The emperor does not wait for a suitor to woo his daughter but gives her in marriage whenhe sees fit. Therefore it is in accord with custom for the girl's familyto take the initiative here. We see here a girl of aristocratic birthwho marries a man of modest circumstances and understands how to adaptherself with grace to the new situation. She is free of all vanity of outeradornment, and forgetting her rank in her marriage, takes a place belowthat of her husband, just as the moon, before it is quite full, does notdirectly face the sun.
It is not given to every mortal to bring about a time of outstanding greatness and abundance. Only a born ruler of men is able to do it, because his will is directed to what is great. Such a time of abundance is usually brief. Therefore a sage might well feel sad in view of the decline that must follow. But such sadness foes not befit him. Only a man who is inwardly free of sorrow and care can lead in a time of abundance. He must be like the sun at midday, illuminating and gladdening everything under heaven. 2ff7e9595c
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