THE BUECHNER REVIEW [October ‘25] We invite you to enjoy this article from Dr. Nathan M. Kilpatrick on ‘the grace of laughter in the thought of Frederick Buechner’ https://t.co/GrRGdjlyvR

More Than Symbol IN ITS FULLEST sense, remembering is far more than the long backward glance of nostalgia, and in its fullest sense the symbol of bread and wine is far more than symbol. It is part of the mystery of any symbol... -Originally published in The Faces of Jesus

Good Works BUT IF GOOD WORKS are not the cause of salvation, they are nonetheless the mark and effect of it. If the forgiven man does not become forgiving, the loved man loving, then he is only deceiving himself. "You shall know... -Originally published in The Faces of Jesus

Dream A FRIEND OF mine dreamed that he was standing in an open place out under the sky, and there was a woman also standing there dressed in some coarse material like burlap. He could not see her face distinctly, but the impression... -Originally published in The Hungering Dark

Vocation IN THE YEAR THAT King Uzziah died, or in the year that John F. Kennedy died, or in the year that somebody you loved died, you go into the temple if that is your taste, or you hide your face in the little padded temple of... -Originally published in The Hungering Dark

To Go On Trying WE TRY SO HARD as Christians. We think such long thoughts, manipulate such long words, and both listen to and preach such long sermons. Each one of us somewhere, somehow, has known, if only for a moment or so... -Originally published in The Magnificent Defeat

Beatitudes IF WE DIDN'T already know but were asked to guess the kind of people Jesus would pick out for special commendation, we might be tempted to guess one sort or another of spiritual hero—men and... -Originally published in Whistling in the Dark and later in Beyond Words

Possibility IN THE SPRING of 1953, I had left my job at Lawrenceville to be a full-time writer in New York, and it was that fall, with my third novel failing to come to life for me, that in some sense my life itself started to come to... -Originally published in Now and Then

This Way BUT ON THE REALLY crucial decisions of life—Do I love her enough to marry her? Is it worth dying for? Can I give my life to this?—when it comes to decisions like these, it is not just the pro-and-con-listing part of me... -Originally published in The Magnificent Defeat

Gluttony A GLUTTON IS ONE who raids the icebox for a cure for spiritual malnutrition. -Originally published in Wishful Thinking

John the Evangelist JOHN WAS A POET, and he knew about words. He knew that all men and all women are mysteries known only to themselves until they speak a word that opens up the mystery. He knew that the words people speak have... -Originally published in Peculiar Treasures

History UNLIKE BUDDHISM OR Hinduism, biblical faith takes history very seriously because God takes it very seriously. He took it seriously enough to begin it and to enter it and to promise that one day he will bring it to a serious... -Originally published in Wishful Thinking

The Plain Sense THE AUTHOR OF the Epistle to the Hebrews describes Jesus as "one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sinning"—tempted to be a demagogue, a spellbinder, a mere humanitarian, we are told in the... -Originally published in The Faces of Jesus

Before Abraham BEFORE ABRAHAM WAS, "Jesus said, "I am." Who can say what he meant? Perhaps that just as his death was not the end of him, so his birth was not the beginning of him. Whatever it is that history has come to see in... -Originally published in The Faces of Jesus

A Man's Face Jesus had a face... WHOEVER HE WAS or was not, whoever he thought he was, whoever he has become in the memories of men since and will go on becoming for as long as men remember him—exalted, sentimentalized, debunked... -Originally published in The Faces of Jesus

THE BUECHNER REVIEW [September ‘25] We invite you to enjoy this article from Dr Lucas Thompson on “Frederick Buechner’s vision of fiction” https://t.co/cqSDJXCRTe

David TO SEE WHAT there was about David that made Israel adore him like no other king she ever had, as good a place to look as any is the account of how he captured Jerusalem and moved in the ark. Jerusalem was a major plum for... -Originally published in Peculiar Treasures

Hell PEOPLE ARE FREE in this world to live for themselves alone if they want to and let the rest go hang, and they are free to live out the dismal consequences as long as they can stand it. The doctrine of Hell proclaims that they... -Originally published in Wishful Thinking

The One Good Reason TO ANYONE WHO is looking for good reasons for being a Christian, let me suggest the only really good one that I know. What does the faith mean by taking this man who was really a man, perhaps the only man... -Originally published in The Magnificent Defeat

Truly Human In addition to the battle to "get ahead," there is another: THIS OTHER WAR is the war not to conquer but the war to become whole and at peace inside our skins. It is a war not of conquest now but of liberation... -Originally published in The Magnificent Defeat