Buy new:
$19.46
FREE delivery Saturday, May 11 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$19.46
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Saturday, May 11 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35. Order within 9 hrs 37 mins
In Stock
$$19.46 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$19.46
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$5.40
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Saturday, May 11 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Friday, May 10. Order within 9 hrs 37 mins
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$19.46 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$19.46
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Philip Yancey
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

What's So Amazing About Grace? Paperback – February 1, 2002

by Philip Yancey (Author)
4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 1,126 ratings
See all formats and editions

There is a newer edition of this item:

What's So Amazing About Grace? Revised and Updated
What's So Amazing About Grace? Revised and Updated
$14.72
(1,043)
In Stock
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$19.46","priceAmount":19.46,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"19","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"46","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"p4JhjsEScUusymbASdIb3Do3ZLUugCPvmvX89YIDlVbdjx%2FpNtbIxJgMS%2FtERZTdbX%2F69QFjJJgo%2FnG0dag%2F5I2mpC0bDyK1ffWZp33txfHBkZGiA1dOTU6MdGJob05j6x0P4CwbQjk%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$5.40","priceAmount":5.40,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"5","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"40","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"p4JhjsEScUusymbASdIb3Do3ZLUugCPvfmcVP2rQwAloID5nLcTpIJkuuFhUnjbkj8rw1FFbRj6yHWqq1SonM2SXjPk8AkICXUukd4teofxQ5Z3Lr9Kzi1WEhR0qoEn1D971ziqdz%2FfFX2lzKXWDzxb5Cr8uComGTK4TVrtghxhB1UCTu%2FyA0A%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

OVER ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD!

Discover grace as you've never known it before: the most powerful force in the universe and our only hope for love and forgiveness.

Grace is the church's great distinctive. It's the one thing the world cannot duplicate, and the one thing it craves above all else--for only grace can bring hope and transformation to a jaded world.

In What's So Amazing About Grace? award-winning author Philip Yancey explores grace at street level. If grace is God's love for the undeserving, he asks, then what does it look like in action? And if Christians are its sole dispensers, then how are we doing at lavishing grace on a world that knows far more of cruelty and unforgiveness than it does of mercy?

Yancey sets grace in the midst of life's stark images, tests its mettle against horrific "ungrace":

  • Can grace survive in the midst of such atrocities as the Nazi holocaust?
  • Can it triumph over the brutality of the Ku Klux Klan?
  • Should any grace at all be shown to the likes of Jeffrey Dahmer, who killed and cannibalized seventeen young men?

Grace does not excuse sin, says Yancey, but it treasures the sinner. True grace is shocking, scandalous. It shakes our conventions with its insistence on getting close to sinners and touching them with mercy and hope. It forgives the unfaithful spouse, the racist, the child abuser. It loves today's AIDS-ridden addict as much as the tax collector of Jesus's day.

In his most personal and provocative book ever, Yancey offers compelling, true portraits of grace's life-changing power. He searches for its presence in his own life and in the church. He asks, How can Christians contend graciously with moral issues that threaten all they hold dear?

And he challenges us to become living answers to a world that desperately wants to know, What's So Amazing About Grace?

Previous page
  1. Print length
    304 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Zondervan
  4. Publication date
    February 1, 2002
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    9780310245650
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0310245650
  8. See all details
Next page
Amazon First Reads | Editors' picks at exclusive prices

Frequently bought together

What's So Amazing About Grace?
$19.46
Get it as soon as Saturday, May 11
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
The Jesus I Never Knew
$13.29
Get it as soon as Saturday, May 11
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
What's So Amazing About Grace? Bible Study Participant's Guide, Updated Edition
$10.49
Get it as soon as Saturday, May 11
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
Choose items to buy together.

From the brand

Previous page
  2. What's So Amazing About Grace? Revised and Updated
    Vanishing Grace: Bringing Good News to a Deeply Divided World
    Where Is God When It Hurts?
    Disappointment with God: Three Questions No One Asks Aloud

    Books

    Visit the Store

  3. What's So Amazing About Grace? Participant's Guide with DVD, Updated Edition
    Vanishing Grace Study Guide with DVD: Whatever Happened to the Good News?
    The Jesus I Never Knew Participant's Guide with DVD: Six Sessions on the Life of Christ
    Prayer Participant's Guide with DVD: Six Sessions on Our Relationship with God

    Video Studies

    Visit the Store

  4. Who Is Philip Yancey?

    Philip is a bestselling author who has written twelve award–winning books and won two ECPA Book of the Year awards. Four of his books have sold over one million copies. In 1992 he and his wife Janet moved to the foothills of Colorado, where they currently reside.

    What Is Philip’s Passion?

    Philip explores the most basic questions and deepest mysteries of the Christian faith.

    How Did Philip Get His Start?

    Philip worked as a journalist in Chicago for some twenty years, editing the youth magazine Campus Life while also writing for a wide variety of magazines.

Next page

From the Publisher

Philip Yancey, grace, amazing, church, God, Jesus, love, mercy, faith, Christian, hope, Christianity
Philip Yancey, hope, healing, trial, tragedy, God, Christ, recovery, hardship, pain, suffering

I would far rather convey grace than explain it.

As I look back on my own pilgrimage, marked by wanderings, detours, and dead ends, I see now that what pulled me along was my search for grace. I rejected the church for a time because I found so little grace there. I returned because I found grace nowhere else.

I have barely tasted of grace myself, have rendered less than I have received, and am in no wise an “expert” on grace. These are, in fact, the very reasons that impel me to write. I want to know more, to understand more, to experience more grace. I dare not — and the danger is very real — write an ungracious book about grace. Accept then, here at the beginning, that I write as a pilgrim qualified only by my craving for grace.

Grace does not offer an easy subject for a writer. I have just read a thirteen-page treatise on grace in the New Catholic Encyclopedia, which has cured me of any desire to dissect grace. I do not want the thing to die. For this reason, I will rely more on stories than on syllogisms.

—Philip Yancey

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING

Philip Yancey, grace, amazing, church, God, Jesus, love, mercy, faith, Christian, hope, Christianity

Philip Yancey, grace, amazing, church, God, Jesus, love, mercy, faith, Christian, hope, Christianity

Philip Yancey, grace, amazing, church, God, Jesus, love, mercy, faith, Christian, hope, Christianity

“My favorite modern author is Philip Yancey.”

—Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States

“Philip Yancey is one of the most engaging and convicting writers in the Christian world. He has produced a work with something in it to make everyone mad.”

—Charles W. Colson, founder, Prison Fellowship

“Yancey’s treatment of the life of grace is vintage Yancey and will give readers a salutary Christian shake-up.”

—J.I. Packer, former professor, Regent College

Philip Yancey, grace, amazing, church, God, Jesus, love, mercy, faith, Christian, hope, Christianity Philip Yancey, grace, amazing, church, God, Jesus, love, mercy, faith, Christian, hope, Christianity Philip Yancey, pain, suffering, wounds, God, terminal, cancer, crisis, CS Lewis, faith, evil, hope Philip Yancey, grace, amazing, church, God, Jesus, love, mercy, faith, Christian, hope, Christianity Philip Yancey, pain, suffering, wounds, God, terminal, cancer, crisis, CS Lewis, faith, evil, hope Philip Yancey, grace, amazing, church, God, Jesus, love, mercy, faith, Christian, hope, Christianity
What’s So Amazing About Grace? Revised and Updated What's So Amazing About Grace? Participant’s Guide & DVD Vanishing Grace: Bringing Good News to a Deeply Divided World The Scandal of Forgiveness: Grace Put to the Test Grace Notes: 366 Daily Inspirations from a Fellow Pilgrim The Jesus I Never Knew
Customer Reviews
4.6 out of 5 stars
1,043
4.5 out of 5 stars
70
4.7 out of 5 stars
1,093
4.7 out of 5 stars
216
4.7 out of 5 stars
402
4.7 out of 5 stars
2,158
Price $14.72 $15.98 $16.12 $8.59 $13.49 $13.29
More Exceptional Resources By Philip Yancey It's the most powerful force in the universe, our only hope for love and forgiveness, and a foretaste of eternal life: amazing, radical, life-changing grace. Over two million copies sold. Now revised and updated. In this 6-session, video-based study, Yancey reexamines—with fresh material and new stories—the scandalous power of grace so that groups and individuals can reflect upon, share, and extend this amazing gift of Christ in new and transformative ways. In a time of division and discord, Christians have come to be seen not as bearers of good news and love but of judgement and intolerance. How did we get here? And what can we do about it? Adapted from What’s So Amazing about Grace, Yancey explores the mystery and wonder of forgiveness in this book. What is forgiveness? Why is forgiveness so difficult? Why is forgiveness scandalous? What does God have to do with forgiveness? These meditations—all drawn from the beloved and bestselling writings of the author—will take you through an entire year of Yancey's insight and imagination, covering a broad range of topics. How does the Jesus of the New Testament compare to the Jesus we think we know so well? Join bestselling author Philip Yancey as he conducts an enlightening biblical and historical investigation into the real Jesus.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

In 1987, an IRA bomb buried Gordon Wilson and his twenty-year-old daughter beneath five feet of rubble. Gordon alone survived. And forgave. He said of the bombers, "I have lost my daughter, but I bear no grudge. . . . I shall pray, tonight and every night, that God will forgive them."

His words caught the media's ear--and out of one man's grief, the world got a glimpse of grace.

Grace is the church's great distinctive. It's the one thing the world cannot duplicate, and the one thing it craves above all else--for only grace can bring hope and transformation to a jaded world.

In What's So Amazing About Grace? award-winning author Philip Yancey explores grace at street level. If grace is God's love for the undeserving, he asks, then what does it look like in action? And if Christians are its sole dispensers, then how are we doing at lavishing grace on a world that knows far more of cruelty and unforgiveness than it does of mercy?

Yancey sets grace in the midst of life's stark images, tests its mettle against horrific "ungrace." Can grace survive in the midst of such atrocities as the Nazi holocaust? Can it triumph over the brutality of the Ku Klux Klan? Should any grace at all be shown to the likes of Jeffrey Dahmer, who killed and cannibalized seventeen young men?

Grace does not excuse sin, says Yancey, but it treasures the sinner. True grace is shocking, scandalous. It shakes our conventions with its insistence on getting close to sinners and touching them with mercy and hope. It forgives the unfaithful spouse, the racist, the child abuser. It loves today's AIDS-ridden addict as much as the tax collector of Jesus' day.

In his most personal and provocative book ever, Yancey offers compelling, true portraits of grace's life-changing power. He searches for its presence in his own life and in the church. He asks, How can Christians contend graciously with moral issues that threaten all they hold dear?

And he challenges us to become living answers to a world that desperately wants to know, What's So Amazing About Grace?

About the Author

Philip Yancey previously served as editor-at-large for Christianity Today magazine. He has written thirteen Gold Medallion Award-winning books and won two ECPA Book of the Year awards, for What's So Amazing About Grace? and The Jesus I Never Knew. Four of his books have sold over one million copies. He lives with his wife in Colorado. Learn more at philipyancey.com.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0310245656
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Zondervan (February 1, 2002)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780310245650
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0310245650
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 1,126 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Philip Yancey

Philip Yancey

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

I started my career working as an Editor and then Publisher for Campus Life magazine. During those ten years I learned journalistic skills (there's no tougher audience than teenagers), but every year it seemed I wrote fewer and fewer words. In 1980 my wife and I moved to downtown Chicago where I began a career as a freelance writer. (She has worked as a social worker and hospice chaplain--which gives me plenty of material to write about!) We lived there until 1992, when we moved to the foothills of Colorado.

I've written over 30 books, most of them still in print, thankfully. Three of them I coauthored with Dr. Paul Brand, who influenced me more than any single person. A recent book, "Fearfully and Wonderfully: The Marvel of Bearing God's Image" is a revised compilation of that content. My other favorites include "Soul Survivor" and "Reaching for the Invisible God" because both of them forced me to dig deep and get personal.

I had two new books released in 2021. “A Companion in Crisis” offers a paraphrase of John Donne’s ‘Devotions’ with commentary and application to our current suffering. My long-awaited memoir, “Where the Light Fell” gives readers a backstory of sorts, revealing the secrets of my turbulent childhood and teen years, and the impact on my written work.

I'm a pilgrim, still 'in recovery' from a bad church upbringing, searching for the possibility of a faith rooted in grace instead of fear. I feel overwhelming gratitude that I can make a living writing about the questions that interest me.

Official Facebook page: www.facebook.com/PhilipYancey

More details, including blog entries, book sales, and release notices: philipyancey.com

SUBSCRIBE to my monthly blog: https://bit.ly/PhilipYanceyBlog

Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
4.8 out of 5
1,126 global ratings
God’s Grace abounds
5 Stars
God’s Grace abounds
I like that Mr Yancey tells us there is nothing we can do to make God love us less!!!
Hide
Thank you for your feedback
Sorry, there was an error
Sorry we couldn't load the review

Top reviews from the United States

Val Colenso
5.0 out of 5 stars Life-changing
Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2023
Verified Purchase
While this is not a new book, it is well-written, with excellent stories and illustrations of grace, and is truly timeless. I have used it in every church I have served over the last 23 years, and it has been very well received in each church. For many of my folks it has been life-changing. Grace - God's grace, and our own ability to give and receive grace - is so badly needed in this day and age, and this is just the book to explain what grace is and to help us foster it in our own lives.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Dr. Marc Axelrod
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Book About Grace
Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2012
Verified Purchase
This book came highly recommended by my wife and from a member of Peace Church. Yancey says that he would rather convey grace than explain it, which is why he writes with stories rather than syllogisms (Yancey 1997, 16).

There are certainly a lot of stories in this book. Part one is about the sweetness of grace. Yancey tells the story of Babette, a woman who served as a housekeeper for twelve years for two sisters, Martina and Philippa. The sisters had lived difficult, graceless lives. Babette wins the lottery, and the sisters fear she will leave. But Babette spends all the money on a lavish French feast for Philippa and Martina and their guests in honor of the anniversary of their father's birth. Grace came to them in the form of a feast and in the form of a loyal friend (Yancey 1997, 19-26).

Yancey tells the story of Peter Greaves, who was angry at God and life because he contracted leprosy while stationed in India. But he testifies that he experienced grace through music while at Bible college. He played piano for hours on end. He also experienced grace through the beauty of nature, as he walked through pine forests, watching dragonflies and flocks of birds. He then experienced grace by falling in love and these experiences gradually led him back to his childhood faith in Christ (Yancey 1997, 40-42).

Yancey also tells a modern day version of the prodigal son story, where a teenage girl runs away from her home in Traverse City, Michigan. She heads down to Detroit, gets into drugs and prostitution to make ends meet. But she misses her family. One day, she writes her parents and tells them that she will be taking the bus home. She arrives at the Traverse City bus station at midnight. She is shocked to discover her family and about forty other relatives waiting for her, wearing party hats and saying "Welcome home!" She hugs her dad and tries to apologize, but he says "There's no time for apologies. We need to get home and celebrate. There's a big banquet waiting for you" (Yancey 1997, 49-51). That's grace.

Part two deals with breaking the cycle of "ungrace." Yancey tells stories of people who lived bitter, miserable lives because they harbored anger and could not forgive (Yancey 1997, 75-81). Yancey says that we should forgive because forgiveness offers a way for us to start broken relationships over and to heal the hurts of the past (Yancey 1997, '98-99). He tells the story of Jean Valjean, the French prisoner from Les Miserables, whose life was transformed by grace (Yancey 1997, 101-2).

There is also the story of Rebecca, whose clergy husband cheated on him with a woman named Julianne. She was bitter, but she phoned them one day and "I choose to forgive you." Years later, Julianne phoned Rebecca to say that the man had been doing the same thing to her and she needed someone to tell. The women got together, and Rebecca led Julianne to Christ, and they became friends (Yancey 1997, 104-6). That is grace.

The rest of the book is in the same vein, pictures of grace, mixed with the occasional picture of ungrace. The researcher has already used the Les Miserables story in a recent sermon, but this book is a veritable treasure trove of grace stories that can be mined for future sermons. But taken as a whole, What's So Amazing About Grace? was one of the most enjoyable and heartwarming books on the reading plan.
6 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Susan in ATL
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book for Bible Study
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2024
Verified Purchase
I am looking forward to getting into this book with 30 of my Bible Study friends. We start in late January so hopefully, by the middle of February I will have a good idea of the subject!
Helpful
 Report
atnminn
5.0 out of 5 stars An Absolute Must Read
Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2013
Verified Purchase
This book was one of several options that I had to chose from for a class assignment. I chose it not because I particularly wanted to read it, but rather because it looked less boring than the other choices. I am so thankful that I picked What's So Amazing About Grace? to read for my class. It was absolutely inspirational. Yancy does a fantastic job of establishing his stand on the subject of grace and then backing up his claims with significant evidence. I personally am a Christian and I believe that having grace in one's life can be life-changing. Yancy, however, points out that grace, while it is the only “good” word left, is lacking in some areas of the world where we as Christians would expect it to be. The church should be the home of grace, yet it has become to many a place of judgment. One particular section of this book stuck with me. Yancy said that church should be a place we go to get cleaned up, not a place where we have to clean up before going to. Grace is so important and this book really stresses that, but it also shows how as Christians we have become recognized as ungraceful. Yancy does such an amazing job of telling his thoughts on grace without making this a difficult read. He uses stories to illustrate a point and then analyzes key sections from that story afterwards. The analysis is where the reflection happens. This reflection is what makes the book so inspirational. Yancy's analysis make the reader think about their own lives and how they could improve with the addition of grace into their daily lives. The only thing he could have done better was to strengthen his transitions between stories, yet that is so minor when compared to everything that is done so well in this book. Overall, this book is well worth reading. It is interesting and will make one think about how they could be more grace-filled in their every day life. I recommend this to everyone, but specifically Christians. It is humbling because Yancy places a lot of the blame for why Christians are viewed as ungraceful in today's society on those who call themselves 'Christians'. He says that in order to change how Christianity is viewed, we must change how Christians are viewed by the world. It is absolutely a must read.
8 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Virginia R.
5.0 out of 5 stars A WAKE UP CALL for ANY spiritual person but particularly for "CHRISTIANS"
Reviewed in Canada on March 29, 2023
Verified Purchase
Arrived on time and the quality was just as described from the second-hand seller.

Is a book hard to put down and so well written that it feels effortless... like watching a good story :)
It speaks about the word "Grace", it's usages in history, law, in the communities around the world and in religion. It goes on to explain how we keep pushing the "Doctrine of Purity," which is what Jesus came to destroy and replace with the "Doctrine of Compassion." The doctrine of purity is what the Pharisees did and is something that many fanatical Christians still like doing and want to keep perpetrating, instead of ACTUALLY mimicking what Jesus taught: Don't judge, just love and this love and compassion will attract and change people's hearts. A WAKE UP CALL TO ALL...
Report
Moore D.
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in France on November 20, 2020
Verified Purchase
Excellent
Report
Justin
5.0 out of 5 stars This is a very amazing book about Amazing Grace
Reviewed in India on December 30, 2017
Verified Purchase
This is a very amazing book about Amazing Grace! Somehow despite all the knowledge we have, we still underestimate the grace of God. Yancey is a gifted writer and Praise God that Yancey's gifts are benefiting so many all over the world. Fell in love with his writing when I read - The Jesus I never Knew.
One person found this helpful
 Report
Pat C.
5.0 out of 5 stars AMAZING GRACE!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 19, 2013
Verified Purchase
How have I managed to miss such an uplifting and inspiring work for so long? I speak not only for myself - but it has gone 'viral' amongst friends and aquaintances in recent months.
A wonderfully reassuring read in these troubled times - and a great vehicle for grounding oneself spiritually.
The perfect bedtime read!
One person found this helpful
 Report
Imke Healy
5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!
Reviewed in Germany on July 15, 2011
Verified Purchase
I've read this book and given it away three or four times now and everyone loved it!
Yancy forces you to go over views you might have held for all your life and change perspective and focus. I don't wan tto give away too much here, but in my mind this a must read for every Christian in the 21st century!
One person found this helpful
 Report