Reviewed by Daniel R. Guild, retired pastor, evangelist, and church administrator.

When I receive Christianity Today in the mail, I look to see if it includes an article by Philip Yancey. If it does, I read that article first. When I heard that Yancey had written a book that won three awards, I purchased it immediately.

Disappointment With God is Yancey at his superlative best. The book's subtitle, Three Questions No One Asks Aloud, introduces his theme: Is God unfair? Is God silent? Is God hidden? Anyone who has ever asked these questions and hasn't received adequate answers must read this book.

With these three questions in mind, Yancey sets the stage in the first section, "God Within the Shadows." Taking his readers through the entire Bible, Yancey examines disappointment with the Old Testament's God the Father; then with the Gospels' God the Son; and then with God the Holy Spirit, of the Acts and the Epistles. He gently answers the questions about a God who seems unfair, silent, and hidden.

In the second, concluding section of the book, "Seeing God in the Dark," Yancy reveals in thundering tones why a God who seems unfair doesn't explain, why a God who seems silent doesn't intervene, and why a God who seems hidden doesn't reveal Himself.

New slants on biblical perspectives and many new ideas shout "Preach me!"

In producing this book,Yancey did not just sit down one day and begin to write. He lived with his three questions for months. And then he wrote a book to warm the heart and strengthen faith. He leads us to make contact with the Father, draw closer through the Son, and turn our questions into answers we can live out through the Spirit.

Reviewed by Daniel R. Guild, retired pastor, evangelist, and church administrator.

August 1991

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