Yancey on Rumors of Another World

This nearly hour-long talk is based on one of Philip Yancey's book, Rumors of Another World. Yancey is my most favorite author, and perhaps the most influential evangelical writer of our time whose works have had a huge impact on both Christians and non-Christians alike. I think he wrote some 27 books, many of them are award-winning.

In this talk he discussed the central theme that is found in all his books, that is how his faith survived the worst church he grew up in. Thankfully that worse faith journey led him into the loving arms of Jesus, an experience of which that propelled him to write books about the amazing grace he never experienced and the Jesus he never knew growing up in that church.



Two years ago, he talked about the blind-opening experience after surviving that church in an interview with CT. But what captured me most in that interview is his pattern of living as a journalist. I initially thought that Yancey can write with such fresh insights and so productively because he is a brilliant, prolific writer. As I read more of his books, I began to understand that like many other writers he learned from (Henry Nouwen, C.S. Lewis), writing for Yancey is a process of self-discovery. He started to approach subject from a point of curiosity rather than mastery. The following excerpt from that interview gives us a glimpse of what it takes for Yancey to be an inspirational writer he is.

What would people be surprised to discover about your life as a writer?

They would probably be surprised to know how boring most of a writer's life is. Sure, you get to travel a bit and do interviews in magazines or on the radio. But that's the artificial side; that's not the real life. The real life of a writer, for me, is an isolated, paranoid sort of existence. [He laughs.] I cannot write with someone in the room. People write to me and say, "I'd like to be your intern; can I come watch you write?" No way! I have to be alone, and when I get into that zone of writing, I eat the same thing for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day for weeks at a time. I don't want to think about anything else but the writing part. So I'll go away on a writing retreat and spend five days in a row alone, writing. Then I'll take a break for a couple of days and start over again. When I was working on Prayer last year, I did this for about 12 weeks in a row.

How does this affect your interaction with other people?

There has to be a sort of reentry period, because after a while I realize the only human I have talked to all week was the clerk at Starbucks. I'll say, "Tall latte, please." And that's it. I talk to Janet at night, of course. But sometimes when I'm in the thick of it, we'll have dinner with friends, and I realize that I've kind of lost the art of interacting with others. My timing is off.