Wisdom Hunter [Paperback]

Randall Arthur (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1999

This rerelease of Randall Arthur's bestselling novel presents the hypocrisy of Christian legalism and a man's search for the only surviving member of his family. The story's hero, Pastor Jason Faircloth, embarks on a journey that lasts eighteen years and takes him through four countries in a quest to find the granddaughter who is being hidden from him. In a process that mirrors our own spiritual journey, he discovers a rich relationship with God and the peace that finally comes with true faith.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Randall Arthur is the author of Wisdom Hunter, a controversial novel about the effects of legalistic Christianity. Arthur and his family are part of a missions agency that assists Eastern European churches reach their areas with the gospel. They are currently involved in planting a church in Berlin.

Product Details

• Paperback: 326 pages
• Publisher: Multnomah Books (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576732304
• ISBN-13: 978-1576732304
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (82 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,128,807 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Christian Fiction Classic, November 11, 2000

By 

mjanke - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wisdom Hunter (Paperback)

I first read Wisdom Hunter back in 1993 and it blew me away. I've read it multiple times since then and it is no exageration to say that its powerful message has not diminished.

Randall Arthur took a difficult subject, legalism, and somehow spun it into a fantastic read. Follow the journey of a southern fundamentalist pastor, Jason Faircloth, who, due to a life-shattering tragedy, is forced to re-examine his entire worldview. He comes to the point where he has to decide what in his life is truely important and of God, and what is self-created and able to be shed. This search for wisdom and his grand daughter (his lone surviving family member) takes him across the world. And it takes you right along with it on a soul searching trip.

Wisdom Hunter vividly comes alive with real characters, conflict, emotion, and a contemporary, relevant message. I'm not sure that it is possible to read a book like this and not have your walk faith challenged to its very core. For we all are guilty, at least to a point, of mistaking our personal opinions or our church's unique teachings for being the will and truth of God. Wisdom Hunter's message is one of freedom and, ultimately, of grace. It is a rare novel that can combine solid Biblical principle so seemlessly into a story that truly moves. A true Christian fiction classic in every way.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!, July 30, 2002

By 

Christopher C. Alsruhe (Baltimore, Maryland United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wisdom Hunter (Paperback)

Every pastor, elder, and deacon should read this book (if they can handle it). And every person who feels like they are being forced into a church mold rather than a biblical mold should read this book. And those who are living in the freedom of the true Christian life should read this book as an encouragement and for ideas to help others escape the clutches of the unbiblical packaging of God and His Church.

God does not fit into our neat LITTLE finite packages in which we require God to dwell. Biblical life does not fit into our legalistic, narrow-minded, self-proclaimed conservative interpretations of scripture. God and the Bible are not servants of our corrupt cultural norms.

This and more is the subject of this story. There isn't much I can say about this book except you've just got to read it for yourself. It is rare that I pick up a story book and read it. But this particular one is one of two cases in which I picked it up and couldn't put it down. I am a reader who takes my time, reads slowly and tries to absorb everything in one reading. This 315-page text was read by me in 2 nights. In the first half of the book, I read much about myself and the changes that are now taking place in my life. I believe God put this book in front of me to encourage me to continue in the same direction and to give me ideas and new thought patterns. There was a freedom handed to me through the reading of this book that every believer needs to experience---BECAUSE IT'S BIBLICAL AND NECESSARY.

Let me just say this about the story line: The first half of the book emphasizes the issues and consequences of the legalistic and culturalized, "God in a convenient package" church (which, by the way, is a different package for each culture and each denomination; so who's right?). Within this first half is a thread which concerns a man's search for a granddaughter and a woman he fell in love with at first sight. The second half of the book swaps the emphasis. The emphasis becomes the search and then changes to the man's new life after a long unsuccessful search. The thread is the issue of the messed-up church. But when this thread pops up in the second half, it's beautiful. Sometimes, it's just a single sentence, so you have to watch for it. But they are sometimes statements that are packed with wisdom. The suspense that builds in the second half of the book is well done. You figure out what's going to happen, but you don't know how it will happen, and the anticipation, at least for me, was overwhelming. It was truly exciting to read, and it has become a springboard to send me far beyond the convenient, unbiblical practices of today's culture-serving, self-glory serving church. Let me qualify one thing: when I say culture serving, I do not mean that the book teaches that believers should abandon culture. Rather, the book teaches that those moral standards that we demand of other believers, that are based on our culture, but won't work in another culture, are not biblical but legalistic. In fact, the church that comes to be front and center in this story is a multicultural church, on the one hand leaving everyone to their individual cultures, but on the other hand making sure that the cultural standards don't get read into the scripture as law.

Go for it! Read it! I dare you to let it challenge you.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A page turner!, April 18, 2005

By 

LMS "Book worm" (WI United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Wisdom Hunter: A Novel (Paperback)

I tend to read more non-fiction books, but I do enjoy good Christian fiction. I truly enjoyed this book. It spoke to me on so many levels.

This book is gritty and realistic. I disagree with the reviewers who think that this book describes sin too graphically. Yes, it is graphic. But whitewashing the truth and papering over it doesn't do anyone any good. Life is tough and sin is real. Scripture itself doesn't sugarcoat sin. It describes rape, incest, murder and other sin in graphic detail. We must be balanced. We shouldn't go to extreams. Sin shouldn't be glorified, but it also shouldn't be whitewashed and ignored. This book deals in powerful way with sin and redemption. Jesus Himself was willing to minister to prostitutes, adulterers, murders, drunks and lepors. He was willing to minister to the very bottom dwellers of society. How can we who claim to be His followers do any less? Jesus has given us the perfect model of who to deal with sin. He confronted it head on. He never condemned or judged people for even blatant sin, but neither did He ignore or condone it.

This book provides much food for thought. So much so, it's easy to forget it's fiction. I was hooked by the end of the first chapter.

This is a book to be read and pondered and thought about deeply.