Now and Then: A Memoir of Vocation - Softcover

Buechner, Frederick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060611820 ISBN 13: 9780060611828

Publisher: HarperOne, 1991

Synopsis

Spiritual and autobiographical reflections on the author's seminary days, early ministry, and writing career.

About this title

Review:

The title of this memoir (the second in a series, following the well-received Sacred Journey) is taken from the theologian Paul Tillich, whom Buechner quotes in his epigraph: "We want only to show you something we have seen and to tell you something we have heard...that here and there in the world and now and then in ourselves is a New Creation". The humility of this title--that "now and then", which speaks of the occasional glimpse of glory but does not claim any more for itself than that--beautifully reveals something of the tone and attitude of Buechner himself. It also suggests what it is about him that readers hold so dear. In this volume, picking up where the first book left off, Buechner begins with his education at Union Theological Seminary, when he studied under Tillich and others. He then tells of his years as minister and teacher at Phillips Exeter Academy, and concludes with his move to Vermont and his decision to make a living as a full-time writer.

As he says very simply in his Introduction, "if you tell your own story with sufficient candour and concreteness, it will be an interesting story and in some sense a universal story". It will also, as this book affirms, be a story that says something of the myriad ways that God speaks to us. This realisation lies at the centre of this small but lovely book. "Autobiography becomes a way of praying", he concludes, "and a book like this, if it matters at all, matters mostly as a call to prayer". --Doug Thorpe

Review:

"Candid... wistful...breathtaking images."--Christian Century

"Strikes to the heart...Unpreachy meditations on life and Christianity at its most profound."--People

"Graceful in story and insights."--Los Angeles Times

"Buechner writes better than almost anyone. This book and its companion, The Sacred Journey, reduce and clarify the who and what and why of his whole life to something not unlike the palm-sized egg of crystal. Deep within it, as we read, the sun shines and the constellations rove."--James Merrill, author of Changing Light at Sandover

"Buechner is a worthy member of the great prose stylists: Pascal, Newman, and Merton, who have harnessed their art to a passionate religious faith."--Louis Auchincloss, author of The Recor of Justin and The Romantic Egoists

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperOne
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0060611820
• ISBN 13: 9780060611828
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128