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What Good is God?

Author:	Philip Yancey
Published By:	Hodder and Stoughton (London)
Pages:	272
Price:	£12.99
ISBN:	978 0 340 99614 0

Reviewed by Stephen Smith.

Philip Yancey’s latest book, What good is God? and subtitled “On the road with stories of grace”, returns to the structure he employed in Soul Survivor, with discrete chapters, in this case on particular places, issues and people united by the common theme that God is involved in difficult human experiences. The contexts range from catastrophic events such as the Mumbai massacre of 2008 or Virginia Tech in 2007, to an evaluation of the significant impact of C S Lewis and the dynamism of the church in China. Each chapter is divided into two parts: the first provides a detailed context to the person or situation and the second is the text of a sermon preached at that location.

Those familiar with Philip Yancey’s writing will find much that is familiar. The writing reflects his background as a journalist and is therefore easy to read with a wide range of knowledge to place people and events in context. Throughout the book there is a sense of his own personal involvement in each context, leaving the reader more engaged in events far from home and in different contexts. He writes as an American and this is reflected in much of his analysis, but a British reader will find much that is appropriate to the UK.

The spiritual insights throughout the book are challenging, encouraging and sometimes profound, and each chapter encourages reflection on a number of aspects of Christian belief and experience in the free western, material world. It can be read as a whole, which provides a broad picture, or taking each chapter in detail can support deeper analysis. This is a book with a secure conventional biblical theology underpinning it and is worth reading in its own right. It also provides encouragement for the discouraged with a positive affirmation that the God of Jesus is relevant, even when life is very discouraging and doubts creep in.