#buechner

Anna Kushnirenko

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Unforeseen Buechner My own heart let me more have pity on,“ Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote… and then he goes on: "Leave comfort root-room; let joy size / At God knows when to God know what; whose smile / ’s not wrung, see you: unforeseen times rather.” Nor its it only the joy of God and the comfort of God that come at unforeseen times. God’s coming is always unforeseen, I think, and the reason, if I had to guess, is that if he gave us anything much in the way of advance warning, more often than not we would have made ourselves scarce long before he got there.

A month or so ago, I had the privilege of being interviewed by David Capes, director of the Lanier Theological Library for the Stone Chapel Podcast. It was such a pleasure to talk with David about Beautiful and Terrible Things and especially about our boys. Both of us are bereaved fathers. I hope you will enjoy the discussion. We also recorded a podcast for Exegetically Speaking which will be out…

I confess that I fretted about this essay because I was so anxious for it to reflect my admiration and love of Mr. Buechner and his works. In the end, I chose to consider the way in which FB engages with and evokes memory, both real and imagined.

As readers of this blog know, Frederick Buechner and his works have been incredibly influential in my life over the last ten years so it was a gracious gift from Dr. Andrew Newell to allow me to contribute an essay for the Buechner Review. I confess that I fretted about this essay because I was so anxious for it to reflect my admiration and love of Mr. Buechner and his works. In the end, I chose…