Customer Reviews

Wisdom Hunter

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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.

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.

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.

The protagonist of this book, Pastor Jason Faircloth, was everyone's worst nightmare as a pastor. He fit the caricature of the arrogant, self-absorbed, uncaring, unfeeling fundamentalist pastor that we often hear about. He was one who felt that he knew the Bible well, he knew God's will, he was called by God and as such, he was unassailable. He ruled his church and his family with an iron fist. This worked well in the church - his church was able to grow. The mindless people who followed him accepted and appreciated his demagogery, but this didn't go over too well in his family. I'll stop there so as not to tell the whole story, except to say that he ends up losing his family.

This loss of family forces a crisis in his life - he re-examines his faith and nearly abandons it. What he ends up abandoning is his extreme fundamentalism. What he ends up embracing is a faith that is more relational and compassionate, less structured in terms of theology and less denominationally oriented. He completely abandons anything that smacks of tradition in favor of what seems to be a pure biblical faith.

This pure biblical faith is lived out in the lives of the pastor and members of a church he joins in Norway. It is there that he is exposed to what he perceives to be true and pure Christianity.

The backdrop for his search for an authentic faith is his search for a granddaughter he has never met, and his search for a stunning Norwegian blonde he meets on an airplane while searching for his granddaughter. Along the way he makes stops in London, Cyprus, Norway and New York City. The book has a very poignant ending that is worth waiting for.

All in all it is a very enjoyable and fast paced book. It is hard to put down. It grabs your attention at the beginning like a good fiction work should and does a good job of holding it.

The book's value is in showing the dark side of extreme fundamentalism. I use the adjective "extreme" here because not all fundamentalists are as extreme as Jason Faircloth was. However, I have been around a few of the extreme fundamentalists and know enough to know that some are pretty close to Jason Faircloth.

However, even though most fundamentalists are not as bad as Jason Faircloth, most share one important similarity - the focus on externals. Fundamentalism started as a good and proper doctrinal reaction to modernism but in its extreme forms it has descended into an externally based version of Christianity where one's spirituality is measured in terms of what they do or don't do. Although most real life people will never experience the extremes that we see in Jason's family, this story does do a good job of showing the impossibility of living by legalistic externals.

What is missing in the life of Jason Faircloth is grace, and this is where the book has value for those who are caught up in fundamentalism.

While this book tells a good story of the dangers of extreme fundamentalism there are some caveats that should be mentioned. First of all, if you are not a fundamentalist, please don't assume that all fundamentalists are like Jason Faircloth and the people in his church. Most fundamentalists are sincere Christians seeking to be faithful to Christ as best they can. They may err on the side of legalism from time to time but most folks are sincerely seeking Christ.

Also, in his search for authentic Christianity Jason throws off everything that smacks of tradition. It is true that traditionalism can be as binding and deadly as extreme fundamentalism, but a rejection of all tradition is as dangerous as becoming a flaming traditionalist. Those who reject tradition usually do so out of a desire to find pure Christianity and they assume that they can find it on their own with just their Bible and the Holy Spirit. What they fail to realize is that the Holy Spirit didn't begin speaking when they became a Christian, He has been speaking and teaching the bride of Christ for thousands of years, and it won't hurt to listen to the voices of Christians who have gone before.

Also, there is a subtle downplaying of the importance of preaching in this book. It is subtle - the author contrasts churches which are mere preaching stations with churches that are alive with what I would call body life. This is a false dichotomy - the preaching of the Word of God is central in any church and it can foster body life, rather than hinder it.

I have two favorite quotes from the book - at one point, Jason's mentor says this:

"If Christianity present in a country for a long time, and becomes tightly intertwined with the culture, is it possible that Christianity in that country could become more defined by the culture's qualities than by the actual teachings of the Bible." <P...

Overall, this is a good book - if you keep the caveats I mentioned in mind this book can help you see any legalistic tendencies in yourself and follow Jesus more fully.

Hey, I'm a seminary graduate, and I learned more theology about what the NT Church should look like from this entertaining book than all the courses I ever took. This book is enjoyable and fun in its own right. A good read and a great character sketch of a man who is broken by his own need to be right.

I don't want to give away the end, but the main character stumbles across a small church in the Norse Countries, which is the most encouraging model of NT leadership I've ever seen. I would give this book to all seminary students and pastors as their first book on church structure. The book gives a vision of what it means to be a true servant leader of the flock of Christ.

Rev. Jason Faircloth, pious and upstanding minister of a 2000-member church, learns that even ministers are not perfect and do not have all of the answers all of the time. Honestly believing that he is doing the right thing, Jason raises his daughter Hannah in a strict, straight-laced manner. She cannot wear pants or makeup, listen to popular music, date boys, and dozens of other "don'ts." Because he turns a deaf ear to her pleas to be understood, she leaves home, seeking the freedom to make her own choices. Eighteen months later, Jason and his wife hear that their daughter has died, leaving behind a baby girl and an inconsolable husband. However, the son-in-law wishes no contact with them, knowing of Jason only through Hannah's description of her strict, legalistic background. Later losing his wife as well, Jason, now devastated and doubting his own faith in God, goes on a journey hunting for his grandaughter. The eighteen-year journey that leads him through several states as well as Norway, England, and Cyprus mirrors Jason's spiritual journey as well. A chance encounter at a church in Norway begins to restore Jason's faith in God as he realizes that the strict legalism of his past faith is not a replacement for a personal relationship with the living Jesus Christ. Jason's quest for both spiritual answers as well as his only remaining relative will keep you turning page after page. Arhtur's book is worth reading again and again.

One of the most riveting books I have ever read. I intended to read a few pages before taking an afternoon nap and found myself finishing it 6 hours later. Randall takes the reader on the intense journey of a "religious" preacher looking for his granddaughter who ends up finding an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

I gave this book to all my family members and several friends. My grandmother told me the only reason she finally went to bed is because her vision got so blurred she could not finish the book. She did so the next morning even before her morning coffee.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to take an afternoon roller-coaster ride and simultaneously see God in brand new ways.

As a pastor of 25 years, I don't think there is a book that I have recommended more than this one. I read it when it first came out, and have re-read it several times since. I have even used it as required reading for many classes I have taught on God's grace. If you don't read any other book this year, make sure you read this one!! Pastor Bob Beeman Sanctuary International

Legalism in Christianity has always been such an interesting subject to me. This is just my personal opinion but I just always wonder where these rules came from and who decided that they were right. What's even more interesting is that a lot of times when someone describes Christianity, legalism rules are always brought up as the stereotype of the religion. This book brings up the topic and questions it and shows that it's not always the right way to follow. One topic that came up that I found extremely thought provoking was whether these rules were what God said, or whether this is just one person's personal views and opinions. This book started off extremely interesting. There's suspense and drama but it's balanced very well and the story is page turning. You don't know what's going to happen and, I sound sadistic, but it's quite moving to see Jason going from extreme legalistic pastor to a guy who has no idea what he wants or what to do.

Then about halfway through the book, it just went downhill. Story lines were never answered. Characters did complete 180s. The tone of the book became extremely preachy. First off, Corrina just disappears. There was so much of the book focused on her and the storyline is just dropped. I'm half convinced Jason invented her in his mind. Then that once scene involving the "bath powder" was just really unbelievable naive on Jason's part. The situation with Cody and Renee could have been handled a lot better in my opinion. I know the book takes place in the 70s so the laws that are effective now weren't as strict back then. However, the situations that take place just seem so over the top. It just makes me feel like the author was making it as dramatic as possible just to create effect. As for being preachy, there were parts of the book that felt like a sermon, mostly Jason's journal entries and the scenes with the church in Norway.

One thing that really bugged me was how the character of Yoma was portrayed. He's supposed to be a refugee from Burma who escaped after becoming a Christian and becomes a pastor. That's all fine, but the author has him speaking in third person all the time. This makes him sound like Yoda which is really annoying. He's the only Asian character in the whole book and it feels like a horrible stereotype. I even asked my Dad, who's from Burma, if anyone who immigrated from there spoke that way and he said no.

I just felt like this story could have been so much better. While legalism is a topic that is focused on heavily in the front of the book, it just dies away as the book progresses. There's too much drama that happens, I mean literally everything that could have possibly happen in a soap opera happens in this book. I mean rape, drugs, suicide, alcoholism, incest, you name it's in here. The problem is how it's presented. The target audience isblatantly at Christian readers. To be honest, if I were not a Christian and picked up this book, I would lost interest very quickly. The writing is not really top notch. However the book does present a good argument and I did appreciate the topics that were brought up. If you are interested in reading more about legalism in the Christian church this is a good book to pick up. It just could have been better for me.

What can I say? "Blown away" is an inadequate way to describe my experience with this book. In all my years never have I had the experience of wanting to meet fictional characters of a book to interact with them until this one. Who amongst us wouldn't have wanted to know a Jason Faircloth, Yoma, or Renee after her conversion? This book is riveting, heart wrenching, and full of hope. I finished it just outside my favorite Starbucks and literally wept. This book has me reconsidering a lot what passes as Christianity in my life and compels me to know Christ in the power of his resurrection. Wisdom Hunter is a gem. Thank you Randall Arthur for giving us such a powerful witness of God's forgiveness and restoration. I will never be the same.