The Searchers: A Quest for Faith in the Valley of Doubt

By Joseph Loconte

Never before had they known such hope.

In a world drenched in violence and oppression, here was a man armed with a message of peace and freedom. Into lives nearly overwhelmed by grief and sorrow, he brought compassion and healing and the deepest joy. To people who felt like outcasts and aliens, he showed the way home. And then, in one devastating night, all their hopes collapsed.

This is where our story begins—in the valley of despair. It is a tale of two friends, a stranger, and a search for truth in a world gone mad with doubt.

Historian Joseph Loconte unlocks the meaning of their exchange, set in the chaotic days following the execution of Jesus of Nazareth. Drawing from literature, film, philosophy, history, and politics, Loconte shows how this biblical drama is an integral part of our own story. Sooner or later, we will find ourselves among the searchers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Release date: Jun 4, 2012
• ISBN: 9781595554475

Joseph Loconte

Joseph Loconte, PhD, is a Presidential Scholar in Residence at New College of Florida and the C. S. Lewis Scholar for Public Life at Grove City College. He also serves as a Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-1918 (Thomas Nelson, 2015).  Dr. Loconte's commentary on religion and public life appears in the nation's leading journals and newspapers, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, National Affairs, the New Criterion, National Geographic, Law and Liberty, the National Interest, and National Review. For ten years he served as a commentator for National Public Radio's All Things Considered. He was the winner of the 2017 Best Article award from the Tolkien Society for his article "How J. R. R. Tolkien Found Mordor on the Western Front."

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Reviews for The Searchers

[dubiousdisciple · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Well, I screwed up this time. I picked up The Searchers from Booksneeze, and let it sit on my shelf for two months while I took care of other promised reviews.Stupid me. This is a fantastic book, intelligent and raw. Raw, not in the vulgar sense, but in the lead-you-to-the-edge-and-curl-your-lip sense. Then it will draw you back from the edge, like the scent of marsh mellow cocoa by a warm fire. Combine all that with a captivating writing style, and you have a winner.Two men walked side-by-side one day twenty centuries ago, heads bowed, on the way to Emmaus. A stranger appeared asking why they were so downcast, and they marveled at the stranger's ignorance of what was happening in Israel. The rabbi Jesus, the hope of their nation, had been rejected by God's appointed leaders and then brutally killed by the Roman Empire.Loconte draws us back to this first-century image of a pair of bewildered and beaten men over and over as he discusses the faith-shaking events within Christianity over the years. In so many ways, religion does seem like the poison that many believe it to be. Where is God in all this confusion? As Loconte walks us through the insanity of our world today, with its suffering and wars and occasional inhumanities, we?re tempted to ask the same question. The Searchers is a book about finding ?faith in the valley of doubt.? It is a journey, not a book which can be surface-scanned, but one that requires walking in the shoes of others.Note that this is not an apologetic book. The one little attempt to help us believe in the historicity of the resurrection seemed to me incognizant of the first-century Christian atmosphere, but I won?t dwell on it, because argument is not the focus of the book. Hope is. As we zero in on the close of the book, we?re once again reminded of those two men and their solemn journey home on the Emmaus road. The moment came when their eyes were opened to see the Lord, and for joy, they rushed back to Jerusalem. Hope lives!