Frederick Buechner

A fresh, creative look at the underlying meaning of the Gospels that stresses the many dimensions of God's relationship to humanity.

The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale

Telling the Truth

Frederick Buechner's Godric "retells the life of Godric of Finchale, a twelfth-century English holy man whose projects late in life included that of purifying his moral ambition of pride...Sin, spiritual yearning, rebirth, fierce asceticism--these hagiographic staples aren't easy to revitalize but Frederick Buechner goes at the task with intelligent intensity and a fine readiness to invent what history doesn't supply. He contrives a style of speech for his narrator--Godric himself--that's brisk and tough-sinewed...He avoids metaphysical fiddle, embedding his narrative in domestic reality--familiar affection, responsibilities, disasters...All on his own, Mr. Buechner has managed to reinvent projects of self-purification and of faith as piquant matter for contemporary fiction [in a book] notable for literary finish...Frederick Buechner is a very good writer indeed." -- Benjamin DeMott, The New York Times Book Review "From the book's opening sentence...and sensible reader will be caught in Godric's grip...Godric glimmers brightly." -- Peter S. Prescott, Newsweek "Godric is a memorable book...a marvelous gem of a book...destined to become a classic of its kind." -- Michael Heskett, Houston Chronicle "In the extraordinary figure of Godric, both stubborn outsider and true child of God, both worldly and unworldly, Frederick Buechner has found an ideal means of exploring the nature of spirituality. Godric is a living battleground where God fights it out with the world, the Flesh, and the Devil." -- London Times Literary Supplement "Wityh a poet's sensibly and a high reverent fancy, Frederick Buechner paints a memorable portrait." -- Edmund Fuller, The Wall Street Journal

A Novel

Godric

A celebrated author shares his personal and professional journey in this moving memoir. Buechner invites readers to listen to their own lives and "touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it". "Strikes to the heart. . . . Unpreachy meditations on life and Christianity at its most profound".--People Magazine.

Now and Then

In Wishful Thinking, the first book in his much-loved lexical trilogy, Frederick Buechner puts the language of God, the universe, and the human spirit under his wry linguistic microscope. In his often ironic and always keen-sighted reflections on such terms as agnostic, envy, love, and sin, he invited us to look at theses everyday words in new and enlightening ways. Freshly revised and expanded for this edition, Wishful Thinking is a "beguiling" [Time] adventure in language for the restless believer, the doubter, and all who love words.

A Theological ABC

Wishful Thinking

With eloquence, candor, and simplicity, a celebrated author tells the story of his father's alcohol abuse and suicide and traces the influence of this secret on his life as a son, father, husband, minister, and writer.

Telling Secrets

The renowned Godric (nominated for the Pulitzer Prize) shares his personal and professional journey in a literary, wise and moving memoir. "Fascinating . . . striking . . . a beautifully successful experiment".-- The New York Times Book Review.

The Sacred Journey

Søren Kierkegaard

C. S. Lewis

G. K. Chesterton

Kahlil Gibran

Blaise Pascal

Wendell Berry

Henri J. M. Nouwen

Philip Yancey

Meister Eckhart

Kathleen Norris

Madeleine L'Engle

Dorothy Day

Readings for Lent and Easter

Bread and Wine

Four Unexpected Prophets Who Shine Light into the Darkness

Not What We Ought to Say

Speak What We Feel

How to Stop, Look, and Listen to Life

Remarkable Ordinary

Brendan

Learn to see God's remarkable works in the everyday ordinary of your life. Your remarkable life is happening right here, right now. You may not be able to see it--your life may seem predictable and your work insignificant until you look at your life as Frederick Buechner does. Named "the father of today's spiritual memoir movement" by Christianity Today, Frederick Buechner reveals how to stop, look, and listen to your life. He reflects on how both art and faith teach us how to pay attention to the remarkableness right in front of us, to watch for the greatness in the ordinary, and to use our imaginations to see the greatness in others and love them well. Pay attention, says Buechner. Listen to the call of a bird or the rush of the wind, to the people who flow in and out of your life. The ordinary points you to the extraordinary God who created and loves all of creation, including you. Pay attention to these things as if your life depends upon it. Because, of course, it does. As you learn to pay attention to your life and what God is doing in it, you will uncover the plot of your life's story and the sacred opportunity to connect with the Divine in each moment.

The Remarkable Ordinary

Daily meditations taken from the works of an acclaimed novelist, essayist, and preacher who has articulated what he sees with a freshness and clarity and energy that hails our stultified imaginations.

Daily Meditations with Frederick Buechne

Listening to Your Life

In this deeply moving book of reflection and recollection, Frederick Buechner once again draws us into his deeply textured life and experience to illuminate our own understanding of home as both our place of origin and our ultimate destination. For Frederick Buechner, the meaning of home is twofold: the home we remember and the home we dream. As a word, it not only recalls the place that we grew up in and that had much to do with the people we eventually became, but also points ahead to the home that, in faith, we believe awaits us at life's end. Writing at the approach of his seventieth birthday, he describes, both in prose and in a group of poems, the one particular house that was most precious to him as a child, the books he read there, and the people he loved there. He speaks also of the lifelong search we are all engaged in to make a new home for ourselves and for our families, which is at the same time a search to find something like the wholeness and comfort of home with ourselves. As he turns his attention to our dreams of the heavenly home still to come, he sees it as both hallowing and fulfilling the charity and the peach of our original home. Writing with warmth, wisdom, and compelling eloquence, Frederick Buechner once again enables us to see more deeply into the secret places of our hearts. The Longing for Home will help to bring clarity and guidance to anyone who searches for meaning in a world that all too often seems meaningless.

Reflections at Midlife

The Longing for Home

The Healing Power of Pain and Memory

Crazy, Holy Grace

One of the brightest lights in late-twentieth-century literature, Frederick Buechner has published more than twenty-five works of fiction and nonfiction that continue to dazzle critics and readers alike, adding continuously to the ranks of his fiercely loyal following. On the Road with the Archangel is sure to continue this tradition with its powerful blend of humor, artistry, and insight into the nature of the human and the divine. Inspired by events in the apocryphal Book of Tobit, from the second century B.C., this is the magical tale of two families brought together, as no mere coincidence, by the devilishly clever archangel Raphael. One is the family of Tobit, a virtuous man who can no longer support his wife and son because of Raguel, the quiet, devoted father of Sarah whose pact with the demon Asmodeus has left her life in tragic shambles. Assuming human form, Raphael appears before Tabias, Tobit's devoted son, to help him retrieve his father's fortune hidden in a faraway city. Together, they embark on a miraculous journey in search of the answers to both families' prayers--a journey that is made challenging and delightful by Rapheal's artful efficiency. On the Road with the Archangel is a masterful combination of fluid writing, lyrical storytelling, and ancient truth blended with modern wisdom. And beneath it all lies a subtle, glowing meditation on the nature of the Holy. Hailed as "one of our most original storytellers" (USA Today), Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Frederick Buechner has written an extraordinary new novel that shines with the mystery and wonder of the divine. Drawn from the ancient apocryphal Book of Tobit, On the Road with the Archangel unravels the tale of a eccentric blind father and his somewhat bumbling song who journeys to seek his family's lost treasure. Narrated by the wry and resourceful archangel Raphael, Buencher's tale is a pure delight, alive with vivid characters, delightful adventures and wondrous revelations.

On The Road With Archangel

a theological ABC.

Wishful thinking

Pulitzer Prize finalist Frederick Buechner's quartet of outrageously witty, inspirational Bebb novels in one volume.

The Book of Bebb

Essays, sermons, and addresses discuss the Bible from a writers point of view, describing what faith and fiction have in common

Writings on Faith and Fiction

The Clown in the Belfry

These powerful reflections on biblical themes by one of today's most popular religious writers point up the truth that the darkness of doubt is often necessary to provoke a hunger for God. The Hungering Dark towers as one of Fredrick Buechner's best statements on contemporary belief challenged by doubt. Drawing on texts from the Old and New Testaments, The Hungering Dark invites us to discover the hidden face of God, the manifestation of his grace, revealed in stillness, in unexpected places, often "through a glass, darkly." It invites us to say yes to "the possibility of God", and to recover "this fantastic hope that the future belongs to God...that holiness will return to our world."

The Hungering Dark

When pain is real, why is God silent? Frederick Buechner has grappled with the nature of pain, grief, and grace ever since his father committed suicide when Buechner was a young boy. He continued that search as a father when his daughter struggled with anorexia. In this essential collection of essays, including one never before published, Frederick Buechner finds that the God who might seem so silent is ever near. He writes about what it means to be a steward of our pain, and about this grace from God that seems arbitrary and yet draws us to his holiness and care. Finally he writes about the magic of memory and how it can close up the old wounds with the memories of past goodnesses and graces from God. Here now are the best of Buechner’s writings on pain and loss, covering such topics as the power of hidden secrets, loss of a dearly beloved, letting go, resurrection from the ruins, peace, and listening for the quiet voice of God. And he reveals that pain and sorrow can be a treasure—an amazing grace. Buechner says that loss will come to all of us, but he writes that we are not alone. Crazy and unreal as it may sometimes seem, God’s holy, healing grace is always present and available if we are still enough to receive it.

Frederick Buechner

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