Undone - by Philip Yancey & John Donne (Paperback)

About the Book

As the world entered a long dark night, Philip Yancey returned to a nearly 400-year-old manuscript for guidance. In it, he found a trustworthy companion for living through a global pandemic - or any other crisis. As Yancey says, "Nothing had prepared me for John Donne's raw account of confrontations with God." Preacher and poet John Donne wrote Devotions in 1623, during a pandemic in his city of London. For a month he lay sick, hearing the church bell toll for others while wondering if his death would be next. From what he believed to be his death bed, the great poet wrote a triumph of literature that has given us such familiar phrases as "No man is an island..." and "Never send to know for whom the bell tolls..." This new version of a classic work is arranged as a 30-day reader based on Donne's meditations, with startling relevance as we face similar questions.

Book Synopsis

As the world entered the long night of 2020, Philip Yancey turned to John Donne's Devotions, a nearly 400-year-old manuscript, for guidance. In it, he found a trustworthy companion for living through a global pandemic--or any other crisis. As Yancey says, "Nothing had prepared me for Donne's raw account of confrontations with God."

By faithfully and poetically rendering Donne's 17th century prose into 21st century vernacular, Yancey opens up this classic work to a new generation of readers. He presents these Job-like meditations on sickness and suffering, alongside his own reflections, in a series of 30 readings that examine the frailty of the human heart, the goodness and sovereignty of God, and the eternal hope of the Resurrection.