The Clown in the Belfry (1992)
Writings on faith and fiction
Book Description
In The Clown in the Belfry: writings on faith and fiction, Frederick Buechner brings together several of his most thoughtful, witty, and penetrating unpublished works.
The assorted essays, articles, sermons, and lectures meditate on a diverse range of topics, from adolescence, pain, and the importance of memory, to the work of Flannery O’Connor and the interaction between faith and fiction.
With addresses first delivered at the New York Public Library, Wheaton College, and the Pierpont Morgan Library, and essays previously published in a variety of journals, monographs, and anthologies, the works gathered in The Clown in the Belfry are eclectic and wide-ranging, yet all brought together by a common style and theme:
It is bats that are supposed to be found in belfries, but for a few incandescent moments in 1831 a man named Lyman Woodard was to be found in one that is still higher than any other building in Rupert, Vermont. The event is described in its proper place. Suffice it to say here only that one day he climbed up and stood on his head in that belfry. Why did he do it? Was he drunk? Was he crazy? Who knows? Who even cares? The point is that it was a gorgeous, clownish, inspired, and inspiring thing to do. It was a radically new way of looking at the mysteries of earth and heaven. It is Saint Paul writing, 'We are fools for Christ's sake.' It is David dancing naked before the ark. It is the rapturous shenanigans and holy abandon of faith kicking up its heels and considering the lilies of the field from an altogether different vantage. It is what virtually everything in this collection is trying to be about, and hence the title.
Reviews
"The Clown in the Belfry is an edifying and illuminating read. Turn your contemplation of it into a spiritual exercise, and you are bound to be surprised by joy."
— Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality & Practice
"Frederick Buechner is without question one of the truly great writers of the 20th century and into the present. He is already being mentioned in the category of C. S. Lewis and G. K. Chesterton."
— viaLibri
"Buechner defies the odds. His sermons read like wisdom literature."
— Jim Gordon
