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Product Description:
Spiritual and autobiographical reflections on the author's seminary days, early ministry, and writing career.
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Amazon.com Review:
The title of this memoir (the second in a series, following the well-received Sacred Journey) originates in the theologian Paul Tillich's 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--the "now and then" that refers to 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, where he studied under Tillich and others. He then tells of his years as minister and teacher at Phillips Exeter Academy, concluding with his move to Vermont and his decision to make a living as a full-time writer. As he says very simply in the introduction, "if you tell your own story with sufficient candor 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 in which God speaks to us. This realization lies at the center 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
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Average Rating : 
Rating :  - listen to your life
Frederick Buechner's "Now and Then" is, at its core, an engrossing story. It is the sequel to Buechner's first piece of autobiographical literature "The Sacred Journey." "Now and Then" picks up where the prior volume left off--Buechner's entrance into Seminary. It follows his life up until the publication of "Godric." Don't be fooled by the slimness of this volume. There are many lessons to be gleaned from Buechner's look back on his life. From the lessons of an extended youth in seminary, to the rigors of representing God in a semi-hostile environment, this is an education crammed into a few pages. Yet the main message of this book is best expressed by Buechner himself. About two-thirds of the way through the book he says: "Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace." Get this book. See how one man's life shows forth something of this universal truth. I recommend it highly.
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