THE bestselling American Christian writer Philip Yancey — whose books include What’s So Amazing About Grace? — has said that he is “retiring from writing, speaking, and social media” after confessing to an eight-year extramarital affair.

In a statement published on the website of the magazine Christianity Today on Tuesday, Mr Yancey, who is 76, wrote: “To my great shame, I confess that for eight years I willfully engaged in a sinful affair with a married woman.

“My conduct defied everything that I believe about marriage. It was also totally inconsistent with my faith and my writings and caused deep pain for her husband and both of our families. I will not share further details out of respect for the other family.”

Mr Yancey, who has been married to Janet Yancey for 55 years, said that he had committed himself “to a professional counseling and accountability program”, having “failed morally and spiritually”.

He continued: “I realize that my actions will disillusion readers who have previously trusted in my writing. Worst of all, my sin has brought dishonor to God. I am filled with remorse and repentance, and I have nothing to stand on except God’s mercy and grace.”

He went on to say that he would now focus “on rebuilding trust and restoring my marriage of 55 years. Having disqualified myself from Christian ministry, I am therefore retiring from writing, speaking, and social media. Instead, I need to spend my remaining years living up to the words I have already written. I pray for God’s grace and forgiveness — as well as yours — and for healing in the lives of those I’ve wounded.”

Mrs Yancey also provided a statement to Christianity Today, which said that she was “speaking from a place of trauma and devastation that only people who have lived through betrayal can understand. Yet I made a sacred and binding marriage vow 55½ years ago, and I will not break that promise. I accept and understand that God through Jesus has paid for and forgiven the sins of the world, including Philip’s. God grant me the grace to forgive also, despite my unfathomable trauma.”

Mr Yancey’s books have sold more than 15 million copies in English, and have been translated into 40 languages, his website says. Alongside What’s So Amazing About Grace?, they include The Jesus I Never Knew, Where is God When it Hurts?, and Prayer: Does it make a difference?. His memoir, Where the Light Fell, was published in 2021 (Features, 14 January 2022; Books, 17 December 2021).

In 2023, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.