I Was Just Wondering

by Philip Yancey

Overview

Best-selling author Philip Yancey writes on a diverse range of topics that touch on the fields of history, science, religion, ethics, and more in this new edition of I Was Just Wondering. These stimulating columns originally written for Christianity Today offer readers short, penetrating observations on this universe, the earth, the church, and the Christian life. Questions such as:

• Why is sex fun?
• Where did racist hatred come from?
• Why do so many Christians feel more guilty than forgiven?
• How do you write or talk about theology in a society that still uses the theological words, but has changed their meanings?
• What is God like?
• Why do people show great interest in "near-death experiences" but no interest in death experiences?

First published in 1989, this revised and updated edition of I Was Just Wondering offers a level-headed, honest journey into questions that are just as important and challenging to readers today.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802846129
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	06/16/1998
Edition description:	Revised Edition
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Philip Yancey is an award-winning author with more than fifteen million books in print, published in over fifty languages world-wide. Some of his most well-known titles include Disappointment with God: Three Questions No One Asks Aloud, The Jesus I Never Knew, and What's So Amazing About Grace?

Table of Contents

Part I: The Human Animal

The Universe and My Aquarium
Endangered Wildness
Winter Luxuries
A Theology from Dirty Jokes
High School Reunion
The New Determinism
The Problem of Pleasure

Part II: In the World

The Midnight Church
Jogging Past the AIDS Clinic
Not a Bad Place to Start
Morality That Pays
Scorpions, Worms, and Missiles
Pinochet and the Pope
A Haunting Deathbed Confession
Merely Human

Part III: Among the Believers

Love and Power
The Way Up
Trivial Pursuits
Mormons, Pharisees, and Other Good Folks
No Right to Scorn
Growing Up Fundamentalist
Morbidly Healthy

Part IV: Necessary Voices

Dastardly Deeds of Deflation
A Converted Imagination
The Risks of Relevance
Two Stubborn Calves
The Rejected One
Forward to the Past

Part V: Life with God

The Jilted Lover
Mixed Metaphors
"Do It Again!"
Thoughts about Jesus While Standing in a Dilapidated Diner
The Spirit of Arranged Marriages
Job and the Riddles of Suffering
The Hardship Ladder
God Plays Favorites
King David's Spiritual Secret

Part VI: Another World

Beware Black Holes
Born-Again Mathematics
Whatever Happened to Heaven?
Imagine There's No Heaven
Sunday Afternoon at the Beach
Disturbing the Universe
The Fragrant Season

Editorial Reviews

Theological Book Review
"A series of short pieces written with insight and integrity, many of which are a gentle form of Christian apologetics for a secular society. This book could also be an excellent resource for preachers—if only many of them could emulate Yancey's learning and relaxed style—and should be of interest to the lay Christian also."

Library Journal
"When Yancey couples his vibrant curiosity with his felicitous style and then begins reflecting on everything under the sun, the result is a collection of stimulating observations bound to nudge and encourage a reader's own reflective powers. . . Enthusiastically recommended."

Virtue
"When was the last time you had a deep conversation with a friend?... That's what it's like reading Yancey's book. . . The perfect gift for a 'thinker."

Moody Monthly
"Yancey is one of the truly creative and insightful Christian writers today."

From the Publisher

"When was the last time you had a deep conversation with a friend?... That's what it's like reading Yancey's book.... The perfect gift for a "thinker.""

Virtue

Yancey is one of the truly creative and insightful Christian writers today.

Moody Monthly

A series of short pieces written with insight and integrity, many of which are a gentle form of Christian apologetics for a secular society. This book could also be an excellent resource for preachers—if only many of them could emulate Yancey's learning and relaxed style—and should be of interest to the lay Christian also.

Theological Book Review (U.K.)