American writers Flannery O'Connor and Frederick Buechner may at first seem to have little in common. O'Connor is well-known, Buechner, not so; O'Connor is a "gothic Southerner", Buechner an "intellectual New Englander". On closer examination there emerge, however, not only striking parallels but complementary focuses and themes. / Both authors are obsessed with the operation of God's Grace in the lives of people. What is even more arresting is that both authors portray that operation in essentially three character categories: grotesques, intellectuals, and children. These categories not only indicate the range of the operation of Grace but also represent the range of humanity from the most essentially "innocent" to the most calculatedly sophisticated. The authors present their fictional characters as types of Everyman and the operation of Grace as normative and inescapable. / O'Connor's focus on Grace is that every person must confront God's grace although everyone must not or will not accept it positively; Buechner's focus is gentler: God's Grace is sought, found, and enjoyed when the character senses such a need. The two in tandem describe the activities then in a wide range, from inescapable to sought-after. / The dissertation traces the O'Connor novels and stories through the three character types, briefly examining the works to ascertain that O'Connor's God is a God of fire and dynamic activity. Frederick Buechner's ten novels and eight works of non-fiction are examined in the same way and the conclusion is that Buechner's God is a God of laughter and compassionate understanding. / As a final conclusion, it is demonstrated that O'Connor is more essentially doctrinally-oriented than Buechner who is more experience-oriented. To the modern mind at all concerned with Christianity, these writers cover the range of the operation of God's Grace: from those who say God is in sovereign control and will be confronted by every man to those who hold that God is available when and if Man wants Him. O'Connor and Buechner are not only complementary but almost needfully linked in order to see all of God's Grace at work. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-01, Section: A, page: 0179. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75261 |
| Contributors | BAXTER, HAROLD JASON., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 380 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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