Thinking about God, Jesus and The Big Questions

This is a review of the book " God on Mute " by Pete Greig. It is a non-fiction Christian about what happens when God meets your prayers with silence. What do you do? This book is of interest not only to Christians, but also to atheists struggling with the question of "If God is good, why do bad things happen?" (I have some information about that question here ). Interspersing theological research with his own personal experience with unanswered prayers for healing for his wife suffering a serious medical condition, Pete Greig does an amazing job answering one of the toughest questions of Christianity. Everyone can relate to this book and these difficult questions.  One thing I particularly loved about this book is that Pete Greig is not trying to assign blame to the situation. He explains first that some prayers God will not answer for reasons which might become clear upon inspection (e.g. 2 people are praying for opposite things - one for rain, the other for sunsh...

I have read the fiction book "The Shack" by William Paul Young (check out its website at http://www.theshackbook.com/ ). I actually read it as part of a study at church, so it was not something I would have thought of reading otherwise, but I was very glad I did. As a bottom line, I would strongly recommend this book to anyone, but especially those who: have had or are having bad experiences with the church or organized religion, are wondering why bad things happen if God is good, are unable to acknowledge God in the middle of a personal tragedy, are struggling with forgiveness. I admit I had some reservations initially, it has been a controversial book. I am reviewing here only the book and not its background, but for those who are interested in more, click here for a balanced review from USA Today giving some of the book's history and author's background, as well as comments from some Christian church leaders. The reservations I had were dispelled by the t...