Renowned Christian author Philip Yancey has announced that he will withdraw from public ministry, following the revelation of a long-term extramarital affair.
Yancey, the author of What’s So Amazing About Grace? and The Jesus I Never Knew, has been married to his wife, Janet, for 55 years and has been a prominent voice in evangelical publishing for decades.
The disclosure was made in a statement to Christianity Today, the US magazine Yancey has contributed to since the early days of Campus Life in 1971.
In his remarks, he admitted that “to my great shame, I confess that for eight years I wilfully engaged in a sinful affair with a married woman”, adding that he had “confessed my sin before God and my wife, and have committed myself to a professional counselling and accountability programme”.
Yancey apologised to his readership and noted the conflict between his conduct and the moral convictions expressed throughout his work. He said that he had “failed morally and spiritually, and I grieve over the devastation I have caused”, acknowledging that his actions “will disillusion readers who have previously trusted in my writing”.
He further reflected that “worst of all, my sin has brought dishonour to God”, describing himself as “filled with remorse and repentance” and declaring that he has “nothing to stand on except God’s mercy and grace”.
As part of his withdrawal from public life, Yancey has stepped down from speaking and ministry engagements and has also deleted his social media accounts. He concluded his statement by saying, “I need to spend my remaining years living up to the words I have already written.”
Yancey’s wife, Janet, also released a statement to Christianity Today in response to the disclosure. She spoke of being “in a place of trauma and devastation that only people who have lived through betrayal can understand”, yet affirmed that she had made “a sacred and binding marriage vow 55½ years ago, and I will not break that promise”.
Janet, who has been acting as her husband’s carer since his Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2023, expressed her Christian belief in the possibility of forgiveness, writing that she “accept and understand that God through Jesus has paid for and forgiven the sins of the world, including Philip’s”.
Nonetheless, she noted the personal difficulty of processing the betrayal, saying, “God grant me the grace to forgive also, despite my unfathomable trauma,” and concluded with a request that readers and believers “please pray for us”.
