Philip Yancey: Soul Survivor

By MARGIE THOMSON

Subtitled How my faith survived the church, this book hits the mark for a meaningful discussion of Western religious expression today.

Yancey grew up in the Southern states of America within the embrace of a racist, fundamentalist church from which he says he has spent most of his life recovering. It almost destroyed his Christian beliefs, but not quite, and Yancey has evolved his own more inclusive, humanitarian system of belief, while retaining a strong fundament of faith. He's made a career out of writing books along spiritual themes, but this one is so strongly culture-based that even someone with no church standpoint will enjoy the richness of his sources and his thought.

It's a series of essays profiling some of the people Yancey considers "helped restore to me the mislaid treasures of God". They include Martin Luther King jun, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Mahatma Gandhi. A most thought-provoking book.

Hodder and Stoughton

$44.95