Gulley, Philip 1961-

PERSONAL: Born February, 1961, in Camby, IN; married Joan Apple, June 2, 1984; children: Spencer, Sam. Education: Attended Marian College; graduate of Christian Theological Seminary (with honors). Religion: Society of Friends (Quaker). Hobbies and other interests: Collecting chairs.

ADDRESSES: Home—Danville, IN. Office—Fairfield Friends Meeting, 7040 South County Rd. E., 1050, Camby, IN 46113. E-mail—info@philipgulleybooks. com.

CAREER: Writer and pastor. Irvington Friends Meeting, Indianapolis, IN, pastor; Fairfield Friends Meeting, Camby, IN, part-time pastor, c. 1999—. Host of television series Porch Talk with Phil Gulley, PBS affiliate WFYI, IN.

AWARDS, HONORS: Christy Award, 2001, for Home to Harmony; Emmy, National Academy of Television Arts and Science, 2007, for Porch Talk with Phil Gulley.

WRITINGS:

“PORCH TALK” SERIES

Front Porch Tales, Multnomah Books (Sisters, OR), 1997, published as Front Porch Tales: Warmhearted Stories of Family, Faith, Laughter, and Love, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 2001.

Home Town Tales, Multnomah Publishers (Sisters, OR), 1998, published as Hometown Tales: Recollections of Kindness, Peace, and Joy, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 2001.

For Everything a Season: Simple Musings on Living Well, Multnomah Publishers (Sisters, OR), 1999, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 2007.

Porch Talk: Stories of Decency, Common Sense, and Other Endangered Species, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 2007.

“HARMONY” SERIES

Home to Harmony, Multnomah Publishers (Sisters, OR), 2000, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 2002.

Just Shy of Harmony, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 2002.

Christmas in Harmony, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco CA) 2002.

Signs and Wonders, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 2003.

Life Goes On, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 2004.

A Change of Heart, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 2005.

The Christmas Scrapbook: A Charming Holiday Harmony Novella, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 2005.

Almost Friends: A Harmony Novel, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 2006.

OTHER

(With James Mulholland) If Grace Is True: Why God Will Save Every Person, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 2003.

(With James Mulholland) If God Is Love: Rediscovering Grace in an Ungracious World, HarperSan-Francisco (San Francisco, CA), 2004.

Contributor to books, including A Grandmother’s Touch: Heart-warming Stories of Love across Generations, edited by Traci Mullins, Vine Books (Ann Arbor, MI), 2001.

ADAPTATIONS: Home Town Tales was recorded by Multnomah Publishers (Sisters, OR), 1998.

SIDELIGHTS: Philip Gulley is a Quaker minister, and both his fiction and nonfiction writings reflect his pastoral background. Gulley offers spiritual guidance in nonfiction books such as If God Is Love: Rediscovering Grace in an Ungracious World and If Grace Is True: Why God Will Save Every Person. In his fiction he has created a world with many similarities to the one he inhabits. His novels and short stories, Home to Harmony, Just Shy of Harmony, Signs and Wonders, and others in the “Harmony” series, are set in the imaginary town of Harmony, Indiana. By turns humorous and heartwarming, they reveal the human foibles of the congregation led by Sam Gardner, who, like his creator, serves as a pastor to the Quaker congregation in the town where he was born.

Gulley collaborated with theologian James Mulholland on If Grace Is True and If God Is Love. In the first book, the coauthors explain how they each progressed from a belief that eternal life with God requires acceptance of his saving grace to a belief that God will draw everyone into heaven, with or without their assent. “The authors did not always feel this way, and their little meditation on Christian universalism is as much autobiographical confession as theological treatise,” commented a reviewer for Publishers Weekly. The chapters are devoted to each of the words in the phrase “why God will save every person,” and the authors use anecdotal material from their own lives and ministries to illustrate their points. Their stance is theologically controversial, but the authors “stick to their guns,” noted June Sawyers in Booklist. John Wilson, a reviewer for Christianity Today, found the book’s premise appealing but ultimately flawed, noting that, as “in their desire to emphasize the power of God’s grace, they end up trivializing human freedom.” Still, Wilson praised Gulley and Mulholland for doing “what many evangelicals and orthodox Christians more generally have failed to do: they have honestly faced the church’s traditional doctrines of salvation and eternal justice, even if only to reject them.”

In If God Is Love, Gulley and Mulholland give a brief recap of the concept of universal salvation outlined in the previous book, then suggest ways of living that belief. They call upon Christians to put less emphasis on “saving” others and to strive instead to treat everyone as members of God’s family. A Publishers Weekly writer stated that while this book may not convince everyone of the authors’ theological convictions, it “details well Christ’s command to love others and how to live that out.”

Gulley has won a loyal audience for his “Harmony” series, beginning with Home to Harmony. In that book, Gulley’s alter ego Sam Gardner is called to take up the pastorship of the Harmony Friends Meeting in his home town. Fresh from the seminary, the young minister has to reconcile the theology he has just studied with the humanity of his flock. As he struggles through his first year, his “journey in faith teaches through the shared medium of laughter,” reported Melanie C. Duncan in Library Journal.

Gulley’s books were first published by Multnomah, but when it became apparent that his Quaker theology was not a fit with Multnomah’s evangelical themes, he entered into a new agreement with HarperSanFrancisco. Harper bought and reprinted his backlist and became the publisher of his growing list of titles.

In Just Shy of Harmony, Sam has a crisis of faith, and in his confusion over the existence of God, he tells his congregation. In addition to their humor, the “Harmony” books have drawn praise for their sensitive portrayal of Sam’s struggles with his own doubts and difficulties. Just Shy of Harmony, for example, shows the young clergyman reading an article about the ten warning signs of depression, and realizing that he has seven of them. A Publishers Weekly reviewer called it a “refreshingly candid novel” enlivened by the author’s “characteristic wry humor.”

Signs and Wonders finds Sam’s wife Barbara wondering whether she should go alone on a trip to the Caribbean that she has won, leaving her workaholic husband behind. Carol Fitzgerald reviewed the fourth book in the series for Bookreporter.com online. She notes that in Christmas in Harmony, Sam is faced with a dilemma concerning the celebration of Christmas. There has always been a traditional service at the meetinghouse, but one of the church elders now wants a progressive nativity scene to be visited by parishioners as they walk through Harmony. “Fans of Garrison Keillor and Jan Karon will enjoy Gulley,” wrote Fitgerald.

In an interview with Jana Riess for Publishers Weekly, Gulley commented, “I get a lot of letters from people who like the human insights of my books. My books tell them that it’s okay to be broken. That being human is not a sin, and that there is grace for people. I get frustrated sometimes when I read Christian fiction. It seems unreal to me. Going to church and having the right beliefs doesn’t always change your life immediately. You still struggle. And it just seems to me that somebody ought to write about that.”

In 1990, Gulley was writing short stories for his tiny congregation’s church newsletter when Irvington Friends was visited by Paul Harvey, son of the popular radio personality. Impressed with Gulley’s writing, he showed it to his father, who recommended Gulley to Vision House, which was then sold to Multnomah. The new management also liked the writings and published the collection titled Front Porch Tales, later reprinted by HarperSanFrancisco as Front Porch Tales: Warmhearted Stories of Family, Faith, Laughter, and Love. The list of series titles grew and led to Gulley hosting Porch Talk with Phil Gulley for the local Public Broadcasting System (PBS) affiliate, a show that earned him an Emmy in 2007.

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat reviewed two books in the series on their Web site Spirituality & Practice. In reviewing Hometown Tales: Recollections of Kindness, Peace, and Joy, they noted that the stories focus on the nine Christian virtues mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23. They are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

In Porch Talk: Stories of Decency, Common Sense, and Other Endangered Species, Gulley again demonstrates virtue through thoughtful stories. The Brussats wrote: “There is a relaxed quality to this author’s writing that is very appealing. In an essay on writing, he notes that the most important thing is to stick with what fascinates you. All of the subjects covered in Porch Talk are dear to Gulley’s heart.”

Gulley’s home page is devoted to the “Porch Talk” series, and he maintains another Web site for his “Harmony” series.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, February 16, 2002, Don O’Briant, review of Home to Harmony, p. 4.

Booklist, March 1, 1997, John Mort, review of Front Porch Tales, p. 1111; February 15, 1999, Ray Olson, review of For Everything a Season: Simple Musings on Living Well, p. 1006; October 1, 2000, John Mort, review of Home to Harmony, p. 304; July, 2003, June Sawyers, review of If Grace Is True: Why God Will Save Every Person, p. 1848; October 1, 2004, Donna Chavez, review of If God Is Love: Rediscovering Grace in an Ungracious World, p. 304; May 15, 2005, John Mort, review of A Change of Heart, p. 1612.

Christianity Today, September, 2003, John Wilson, review of If Grace Is True, p. 73.

Library Journal, September 1, 2000, Melanie C. Duncan, review of Home to Harmony, p. 184; November 1, 2002, Shawna Saavedra Thorup, review of Christmas in Harmony, p. 72; April 1, 2003, Wilda Williams, review of Signs and Wonders, p. 84; July, 2003, Mary Prokop, review of If Grace Is True, p. 87; April 1, 2004, Tamara Butler, review of Life Goes On, p. 80; November 1, 2004, Nancy Pearl, review of Life Goes On, p. 135; June 1, 2005, Tamara Butler, review of A Change of Heart, p. 108; September 1, 2005, Tamara Butler, review of The Christmas Scrapbook: A Charming Holiday Harmony Novella, p. 122.

Publishers Weekly, March 22, 1999, review of For Everything a Season, p. 87; August 21, 2000, Jana Riess, review of Home to Harmony, p. S19; February 25, 2002, review of Just Shy of Harmony, p. 40; February 25, 2002, Jana Riess, “PW Talks with Philip Gulley” (interview), p. 41; September 30, 2002, review of Christmas in Harmony, p. 50; June 16, 2003, review of If Grace Is True, p. 67; March 24, 2003, review of Signs and Wonders, p. 59; March 1, 2004, review of Life Goes On, p. 50; August 23, 2004, Cindy Crosby, “Taking a Novel Approach: In Harmony and Strife, Philip Gulley’s Books Keep on Selling”; April 17, 2006, review of Almost Friends: A Harmony Novel, p. 162; March 26, 2007, review of Porch Talk: Stories of Decency, Common Sense, and Other Endangered Species, p. 8512; October 25, 2004, review of If God Is Love, p. 44.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), December 23, 2002, Nancy Pate, review of Christmas in Harmony, p. 4.

ONLINE

AmericanProfile.com,http://www.americanprofile.com/ (February 8, 2004), Jackie Sheckler Finch, “Hometown Humorist.”

BookPage.com,http://www.bookpage.com/ (November 2, 2007), Lynn Green, “Coming Home to Harmony,” interview.

Bookreporter.com,http://www.bookreporter.com/ (November 2, 2007), Carol Fitzgerald, review of Christmas in Harmony.

Harmony Series Home Page,http://www.harmonyseries.com (November 2, 2007).

Philip Gulley Home Page,http://www.philipgulleybooks.com (November 2, 2007).

Spirituality & Practice,http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/ (November 2, 2007), Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, reviews of Hometown Tales: Recollections of Kindness, Peace, and Joy and Porch Talk: Stories of Decency, Common Sense, and Other Endangered Species.*