Frederick Buechner

Jon Peters · #1 (**permalink**) 11-03-2009, 05:49 PM

Can anyone here on the PB tell me about where this guy is coming from? Theology, etc.?

Ivan · #2 (**permalink**) 11-03-2009, 06:08 PM

This Wikipedia entry is very good:

Frederick_Buechner

Jon Peters · #3 (**permalink**) 11-03-2009, 06:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ivan

This Wikipedia entry is very good:

Frederick Buechner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thanks. I read a good portion of that and scanned the rest. I didn't get a bead on his theology though. Was he a liberal? Evangelical?

Ivan · #4 (**permalink**) 11-03-2009, 06:26 PM

Since his teachers were Tillich, Niebuhr....I'm guessing liberal...but doesn't always means the students become liberal.

Skyler · #5 (**permalink**) 11-03-2009, 07:16 PM

Quote:

The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you.

An interesting quote, but I don't know if it represents his theology accurately.

Here's another one:

Quote:

It is as impossible for man to demonstrate the existence of God as it would be for even Sherlock Holmes to demonstrate the existence of Arthur Conan Doyle.

Quote:

Theology is the study of God and his ways. For all we know, dung beetles may study humanity and our ways and call it humanology. If so, we would probably be more touched and amused than irritated. One hopes that God feels likewise.

This one is just sad:

Quote:

Speaking against abortion, someone has said, "No one should be denied access to the great feast of life," to which the rebuttal, obviously enough, is that life isn't much of a feast for the child born to people who don't want it or can't afford it or are one way or another incapable of taking care of it and will one way or another probably end up abusing or abandoning it.

How would Jesus himself decide, he who is hailed as the Lord of Life and yet who says that it is not the ones, who, like abortionist, kill the body we should fear but the ones who can kill the body and soul together the way only the world into which it is born can kill the unloved, unwanted child. (Matthew 10:28)?

There is perhaps no better illustration of the truth that in an imperfect world there are no perfect solutions. All we can do, as Luther said, is to sin boldly, which is to say (a) know that neither to have the child nor not to have the child is without the possibility of tragic consequences for everybody yet (b) be brave in knowing that not even that can put us beyond the forgiving love of God.

I get the feeling he's a little on the liberal side(at least).

Ivan · #6 (**permalink**) 11-03-2009, 07:32 PM

Laura · #7 (**permalink**) 11-03-2009, 09:48 PM

[quote=Skyler;711003]

Quote:

Speaking against abortion, someone has said, "No one should be denied access to the great feast of life," to which the rebuttal, obviously enough, is that life isn't much of a feast for the child born to people who don't want it or can't afford it or are one way or another incapable of taking care of it and will one way or another probably end up abusing or abandoning it.

How would Jesus himself decide, he who is hailed as the Lord of Life and yet who says that it is not the ones, who, like abortionist, kill the body we should fear but the ones who can kill the body and soul together the way only the world into which it is born can kill the unloved, unwanted child. (Matthew 10:28)?

There is perhaps no better illustration of the truth that in an imperfect world there are no perfect solutions. All we can do, as Luther said, is to sin boldly, which is to say (a) know that neither to have the child nor not to have the child is without the possibility of tragic consequences for everybody yet (b) be brave in knowing that not even that can put us beyond the forgiving love of God.

I get the feeling he's a little on the liberal side(at least).

Wow, that is twisted. And what an AWFUL take on Luther's "sin boldly."