Deep inside the heart of every person lurks a suspicion that God exists, purports Bruner, a v-p with Focus on the Family and author of Finding God in The Lord of the Rings
. Likewise, this suspicion, or inkling, is confirmed through everyday happenings, be they joyous occasions, painful interludes, stories passed from generation to generation or the foundations of various religions. Bruner gathers a smattering of examples in an attempt to persuade nonbelievers of God's existence while reaffirming Christians' belief in God as intuitively sensible. While Bruner will certainly please already devout followers of Christ with this argument, and does a lovely job of supplying poignant and meaningful essays to remind them of how God works in their midst, it is unlikely he will win over any hardcore skeptics. In his section detailing the stories told through books and movies, Bruner skillfully highlights the underlying spiritual quests for justice, innocence, light, redemption and purpose. In each of these mini-sketches, he expounds on the human search for transcendent meaning, that inner longing for eternal significance that he says is fulfilled only by encounters with the divine. Bruner's work is well-written and persuasive to a point, yet it fails to incite the passion that many spiritual seekers will require to get them started on the road to belief if they are not already en route. (Jan.)
