Our Church Library. New Book Review

Soul Survivor: How Thirteen Unlikely Mentors Helped My Faith Survive the Church
By Philip Yancey

Reviewed by Adele Gallogly

In this intriguing book, Yancey intermingles his personal experiences of Christian faith with thoughtful profiles of thirteen contemporary and historical figures who challenged and refined his beliefs. Some spiritual mentors  are figures Yancey encountered only through their writings, such as G.K. Chesterton, Shūsaku Endō, and Leo Tolstoy. Others are authors that he personally interviewed, such as Annie Dillard, Dr. Paul Brand, Henri  Nouwen, and Frederick Buechner. With great care and candour, Yancey describes how these mentors helped him to stay hopeful as he grappled with the deep tensions and mysteries of following Christ in community with others. 

I first had the pleasure of reading Soul Survivor almost fifteen years ago, when I had recently left the mentorship of a school setting and I was wrestling with vocational questions. I am wondering how its wisdom might speak to me in fresh ways now, all these years later. I have my own copy to reread, though – so the church copy is all yours.