Jesus in books

The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey

 Not the Sunday school Jesus

Philip Yancey, a US journalist and the author of numerous books on suffering, prayer and the experience of God, wrote this book as a way of taking a fresh look at Jesus. He says, “The Jesus I got to know in writing this book is very different from the Jesus I learned about in Sunday school. In some ways he is more comforting; in some ways more terrifying.”

The Jesus I Never Knew uncovers someone who is brilliant, creative, challenging, fearless, compassionate and unpredictable. Yancey’s honesty helps readers discover a different Jesus from the flannelgraph Sunday school figure, the sweetly smiling Victorian Saviour, and all the cultural clichés that have tamed Jesus and kept him in comfortable religious boxes.

Philip Yancey’s book works as a thorough introduction to Jesus and his world, covering the whole story from the manger in Bethlehem through to the empty tomb in Jerusalem. On the way, it looks at Jesus’ teaching and miracles, his character and compassion, and the significance of his life and death. Yancey also relates the events in the life of Jesus to the world of today.

“No one who meets Jesus ever stays the same,” says Philip Yancey. “In the end, I found the process of writing this book to be a great act of faith-strengthening. Jesus has rocked my own preconceptions and has made me ask hard questions about why those of us who bear his name don’t do a better job of following him.”

What readers have said about the book…

“If you think of Jesus as being a gentle, rather harmless character with long flowing blonde locks who was a really good bloke but nothing more – this book will make you think again!” – A Reader, Amazon

“Philip Yancey takes your childhood preconceptions of a perpetually calm, rarely smiling, stained glass window Christ (who always seems to look remarkably like Robert Powell!) and replaces them with a vivid and deeply real person…” – C Chambers, Amazon

Buy your copy here

Philip Yancey talks about his book

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