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Sanctifying the Profane: Religious Themes in the Fiction of Frederick Buechner

Frederick Buechner is an American novelist, born in 1926, who, since 1950, has created eight novels and five works of nonfiction. Although his work has been reviewed and admired by prestigious critics, no lengthy study has yet appeared. Yet the merit of Buechner's work deserves wider critical attention. This study does not attempt to deal comprehensively with Buechner's twenty-five year span of creativity. Instead it presents a consideration of what has been Buechner's most consistent concern throughout his work: his attempt to justify the ways of God to contemporary man. This study is unique in that much of it is based upon a personal conversation with the author rather than on secondary sources. On March 15, 1976, a personal interview was granted with Mr. Buechner in Hobe Sound, Florida. It was a rare opportunity to question an author about his works and his life, especially since this interview occurred simultaneously with the writing of this paper. In addition to the personal interview, Buechner's nonfictional works were used to illuminate his fictional themes. The religious dimension is present in Buechner's works from the beginning, even before he had formally studied theology. Although Buechner is still a relatively young novelist who will no doubt add to his present achievements, he is already unique among modern novelists in that he does not hesitate to deal with religious concepts as literal truths.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc330720
Date08 1900
CreatorsMyers, Nancy B.
ContributorsHughes, Robert L., Vann, Don J., Mitchell, Giles R., Miller, Lee W.
PublisherNorth Texas State University
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
Formatiii, 208 leaves, Text
RightsPublic, Myers, Nancy B., Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

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