page_title: What's So Amazing About Grace?
section_title: Content
hierarchical_section_title: What's So Amazing About Grace? / Content
caption_attribution_description: Rev. Mel White in front of Christmas tree, Xmas Party 1995
context_page_description: What's So Amazing About Grace? is a 1997 book by Philip Yancey, an American journalist and editor-at-large for Christianity Today. The book examines grace in Christianity, contending that people crave grace and that it is central to the gospel, but that many local churches ignore grace and instead seek to exterminate immorality. What's So Amazing About Grace? includes Bible stories, anecdotes from Yancey's life, accounts of historical events and other stories. These include a modern retelling of the Parable of the Prodigal Son, an account of Yancey's friendship with Mel White who came out as homosexual, a comparison of the teachings of early Christians Pelagius and Augustine of Hippo, and a summary of Karen Blixen's short story "Babette's Feast".
  Yancey was inspired to write What's So Amazing About Grace? after President Bill Clinton asked him, "Why do Christians hate so much?"
context_section_description: In What's So Amazing About Grace?, Yancey discusses grace, calling it "our last best word". The book's thesis is that, although people crave grace and it is centrally important to the gospel, many local churches ignore grace in their quest to exterminate immorality. Yancey uses the word "ungrace" to describe actions that fail to demonstrate grace. According to the author, the greatest gift the Christian Church can give the world is grace, but the church sometimes offers ungrace instead. Yancey writes that there are secular analogues to most Christian activities benefiting the world, such as social justice work and community service, but that "grace is theological; it comes from God. It's one thing the church can offer that isn't found anywhere else". He describes his experiences attempting to make grace part of the way he lived and not just part of his theology. Yancey quotes Christian counselor David Seamands: "The two major causes of most emotional problems among Evangelical Christians are these: the failure to understand, receive and live out God's unconditional grace and forgiveness; and the failure to give out that unconditional love, forgiveness, and grace to other people".
  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. 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. 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.
  Yancey writes that Christians should be politically active and should, for example, oppose abortion, "but you have to find a way to do it with grace ... If I'm against abortion and I don't find a way to love the woman who got the abortion and even her doctor, then I don't understand the gospel." Yancey recounts Jesus's Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, concluding that God is only willing to forgive us if we are willing to forgive those who have wronged us. In a similar vein, he quotes William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice: "How shalt thou hope for mercy, rendering none?"
  The author summarizes Karen Blixen's short story "Babette's Feast", which was adapted into a 1987 Danish film. The story is set in a fishing village where the inhabitants avoid all pleasure for religious reasons. Two sisters take in Babette, a Parisian refugee who becomes their personal chef, but they allow her to make only simple, bland meals. Years pass; Babette wins a lottery and spends her winnings on a delicious banquet for the villagers, who agree to eat but not enjoy the food. A banquet guest recognizes Babette as a former world-renowned chef and identifies her gift to undeserving and initially unwilling recipients as grace. In another chapter Yancey similarly summarizes Gabriel García Márquez's novel Love in the Time of Cholera.
  Yancey describes his friendship with Mel White, who was a married pastor and Fuller Theological Seminary lecturer with two children when he came out as homosexual. White had been a ghostwriter for Christian writers including Francis Schaeffer, Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell, and Yancey was surprised by White's self-disclosure. According to the author, he and White had long discussions on the subject "because he wanted so much for me to approve. I couldn't approve." Yancey writes that, although he continued to cultivate his friendship with White, many other Christians shunned the pastor. One chapter, "The Lovesick Father", retells the Parable of the Prodigal Son 
caption: Yancey writes about his friendship with prominent pastor Mel White (pictured, 1995).
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