If Philip Yancey were a musician, his latest book, What Good is God? In Search of a Faith That Matters (978-0-446-55985-0, $23.99, FaithWords) might in some ways be considered a remastered or live greatest-hits package.

Releasing this month and subtitled “In Search of a Faith That Matters,” the 304-page collection of essays and talks finds him revisiting some topics and events that will be familiar to readers of some of his best-selling titles and other writings, but finding new life and light in them.

Yancey continues the thoughtful examination of the challenges of authentic faith for which he is known, submitting Christianity to what he says technology developers call “the tabletop test”—does the shiny new product still work in the real world after it has been dropped on the floor?

Answering that takes Yancey from the campus of Virginia Tech shortly after the 2007 shooting rampage that claimed the lives of 32 students and faculty to a clandestine meeting with a hero of the underground church in China who spent years in solitary confinement, as well as sitting with a roomful of former prostitutes as they tell of abuse and pain.

But his search for answers is not all academic or detached—he also writes of the day he broke his neck in an auto accident, fearing for a time that he may be paralyzed. In addition, he tells of being in Mumbai, India in 2008, the day terrorists killed 172 people. And he shares his painful experiences at an extremely conservative Bible college, where rules trumped grace.

Yancey observes that struggles and challenges can help boil life down “to a few basic questions. Who do I love? Who will I miss? What have I done with my life? Am I ready for what’s next?” Reflecting on his experiences and sharing some of the messages from his speeches, he also notes that “we are not designed to bear pain alone” and how desperate situations provide an opportunity for believers to model Christ.

“A world marked by ... madness desperately needs the church to show another way to cope with differences in culture, race and caste,” he writes, documenting examples of some who have done just that.