Philip’s book, What’s So Amazing About Grace, is one of the first Christian books I read. A classic that opens up truths about the love of God and His immense and abundant grace.
Reading now about Philip’s childhood and upbringing, it seems to me to be truly miraculous that he even made it through, let alone being able to write such depths of faith. It makes that book even more poignant and powerful.
The Christian fundamentalism that surrounded his childhood and teenage years I find frightening. The institutionalised racism, misogyny and basic lack of love, on the surface at least, appears abhorrent when judged by our current attitudes and standards. Maybe this is an unfair judgement to make? However, it seemed to lead to disfunction in the family, emotional abuse and a pushing away from faith (sadly faith getting mixed up with religion).
You could argue that the fundamentalism resulted in Philip being intellectually challenged, and without this challenge and working out the truths about God, we may never have gained from his wisdom. To say that God works for good in all circumstances I hope is not cold comfort, because the physical and emotional pain was real and harsh, and should not be belittled.
This book will help us to see through the clutter, falsehoods and religiosity that can work to keep us from God’s truths. I pray you read it so that it will also help you to question and seek truths for yourself. And don’t miss Philip’s other great writing too.
Reading this book also makes me question our (society’s) attitude to the importance of parenting. So often, psychologists, psychiatrists, councillors and even faith healers will, for the right reasons, dissect someone’s childhood as being the root cause of so many issues. So often people survive life despite their upbringing, rather than because of it.
So why do we still seem to fail generation after generation by not equipping parents to nurture and develop their children in a way that will produce the sort of people they deserve to be? Why do we continue to make the same mistakes? Why have we not learned the fundamental truths of the importance of good parenting? Too many people spend the best part of their lives unravelling the effects of a failed childhood before they can live their best lives.
