Soul Survivor: How Thirteen Unlikely Mentors Helped My Faith Survive the Church
Like many Christians, Philip Yancey has often felt kicked around, abused, and  damaged by the institutional church. And like many Christians, he has found solace in  reading about and getting to know some extraordinary individual believers. He profiles  13 of those believers inSoul Survivor: How My Faith Survived the Church. "I  became a writer, I now believe, to sort out words used and misused by the church of my  youth," Yancey writes in the book's first chapter. The church of his youth, which described  itself as "New Testament, Blood-bought, Born-again, Premillennial, Dispensational,  fundamental," Yancey now describes as a frightening place where racism and bigotry were  regularly preached from the pulpit. After graduating from Bible college, Yancey became a  writer and chose to direct his attention to "people I could learn from, people I might want to  emulate," such as C. Everett Koop and Robert Coles. He also read widely and  passionately--Leo Tolstoy, Martin Luther King Jr., G.K. Chesterton, and Annie Dillard, to  name a few.Soul Survivoroffers probing, honest profiles of 13 individuals  who have "helped restore to me the mislaid treasures of God." For most readers, these  profiles will serve as starting points to explore the lives and minds of the individuals who  have inspired Yancey.--Michael Joseph Gross--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.