Read About Truth and Life in John Hansel Jr.' s New Book Amphibian...

Amphibian Diaries: A Field Guide for Truth-Seekers is John Hansel, Jr.’s latest book chronicling a series of enlightening conversations with the least expected individual. Homeward-bound after a trip to Louisiana, the author finds a talking frog in his bag. The amphibian introduces himself as BP, honoring philosopher Blaise Pascal, whose idea of The God Wager is part of the inspiration for the book. From then on, BP urges John to be more reflective about life and the direction he is going, and the man’s views and beliefs are turned upside down.

The many tidbits of wisdom shared by the frog are melodiously poetic, the first of his six main principles being: “Each of us is a soul with a hole, so we run and run yet fall short of our goal. We reset the bar expecting the good, yet never get far as we think we should!” This begins John’s journey to figuring out the direction his life is headed. BP and John go back and forth about mankind’s shared desire for answers to the ultimate questions in life about our origin, destiny, morality, and life’s meaning. “Surely there must be answers,” BP says, “yet we must make our way through this shadowy life, strutting and fretting without answers for questions we most certainly want to answer.”

The frog says that despite people’s personal or religious backgrounds, everyone has their own version of answers to these ultimate questions. BP states that the issue with answering these questions transcends man’s natural ability to understand with surety, invoking faith in each of us. Hours go by, and while the young man throws one retort after another, the frog delivers sufficient answers, usually in the form of a Socratic, didactic question that John and the reader need to answer by critical reflection.

Back in the city and in the days that follow, John learns the remaining five foundational principles essential for genuine truth-seeking and testing our ideas of faith and worldview. He also discovers he is not the only one who has had such an eye-opening conversation about God and life. As a close friend invites him to a more in-depth discussion on these topics, John (and the reader by proxy) needs to decide if he is ready to commit to a one-on-one dialogue with an open mind while listening with an open heart.

Before immortalizing his discussions with BP Frog in his book, John Hansel, Jr. earned his degree in Communication at Ohio State University, followed by his Master’s of Biblical Studies at the Dallas Theological Seminary, and his doctorate in Educational Leadership Development at Ohio State University. A spiritual man who loves writing, John spends most of his time sharing about BP’s principles of truth-seeking.

John served as a senior pastor, worked with The Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and became an area director for Search Ministries. Other than Amphibian Diaries, John’s recent achievement as a spiritual mentor is his tenure as Director of The Heart for Home—a group dedicated to encouraging people to talk about God and life.

The ultimate thesis of the Amphibian Diaries is that a humble and honest quest using the six principles of truth-seeking introduced in this book (remembered by the SEARCH acrostic and its poetic presentation) will ultimately lead to the Good News of the Way, the Truth, and the Life of abundant Love. The book is also creatively interactive for readers with the website by the same title: http://www.AmphibianDiaries.com. The author welcomes personal, ongoing dialogue from readers of his book and website visitors alike.

The book has already been endorsed by popular philosophers, such as Dr. Gary Habermas, the author of Resurrected?: An Atheist and Theist Dialogue and chairman of the Department of Philosophy at Liberty University; Kelly Monroe-Kullberg, author of Finding God at Harvard and founder of The Veritas Forum; and Dr. Kenneth Boa, author of Faith Has Its Reasons and president of Reflections Ministries. It is published with Elm Hill, a division of HarperCollins Christian Publishing.

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