Amanda+Owens-+Soul+Survivor+Summary

In Chapters 1-7, Yancey talks about Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Leo Tolstoy, Dr. Robert Coles, G.K. Chesterton, and Dr. Paul Brand. All of these mentors were very successful and well known. Yancey was influenced by them because they helped him develop his faith in more ways than one.

Yancey did not have a great experience in the church. He said he was "recovering from the church for most of his life." Martin Luther King, Jr. and Dr. Robert Coles were two of Yancey's mentors that helped him overcome his battles with racism toward blacks. The church he attended viewed blacks as under whites and he had been struggling with this problem for many years.

Also in the first section, Yancy asks the question about "why doesn't faith work?" This is were Yancey's mentor Tolstoy comes into effect. Through Tolstoy, Yancey realized that our world and it's faith does not work because our sin is to great. Sometimes it is hard to have faith, because of all the sin in our world but as Christians we just need to believe and turn to God.

[|Soul Survivor: How My Faith Survived the Church]

G.K.Chesterton helped Yancey see Christianity as a blessing rather than suffering. Yancy believe there was God's good surrounded by bad or "relics of a wreck,"as Yancey put it. Yes there are bad things in the world but there are also Godly good things happening within the bad.

"I thank God for pain," said Dr. Paul Brand. He thought suffering was a way to work through faith and he taught Yancey be grateful for a God who loves.

Even though Gandhi was not a Christian he was still influential to many people. He was so compassionate and caring. Gandhi taught Yancey that non believers can also be influential just by their way of life and what knowledge they leave after they passed.

The last half of the book, chapters 8-13, Yancey's talks about many of his mentors simplified their lives. There are many challenges when dealing with simplifying ones life, including giving up what is not needed. There are two aspects of simplifying, physical and mental. The physical being material things ,and the mental being compressing thoughts. After simplifying, there can be some positives and negatives. Positives include getting closer to God, more time, calmness, less distraction. Negatives include losing relationships, personal possessions, jobs.For example, Annie Dillard and John Doone both gave up their lifestyles the had and gained better relationships with God.

A theme throughout the last section of Soul Survivor is about Yancey's mentors actions or words creating a tension with in the church. For example, Frederick Buechner created tension because of his disconnect with the church through his preachings. He was too religious for the secular people and to secular for the religious. He would always say what everyone else would not.

Also Dr. C Everett Koop created tension within the church by fighting for AIDS rights. He was a doctor and believed that they should not be turned away from care. He did not agree with their lifestyles and choices but he could not pick and choose his patients; he had to treat everyone as an equal.

Yancey points out throughout the book that each and every one of his mentors is imperfect. They all had problems and flaws just like everyone else. But as Christians we have to forgive and love our neighbors. That is why Yancey choose the mentors he choose was because of all their struggles. That is what helped Yancey throughout his faith.