Telling the Truth (1977)
The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale
Book Description
In Telling the Truth, Frederick Buechner offers masterful meditations on God, humanity, the Gospel, and the art of preaching.
First written and delivered at the 1776 Yale Divinity School Lyman Beecher Lectures, the four chapters—‘Telling the Truth’, ‘The Gospel as Tragedy’, ‘The Gospel as Comedy’, and ‘The Gospel as Fairy Tale’—journey through the process of unveiling the works of God to human eyes, ears, and hearts.
In Buechner’s telling, each person must first perceive the tragedy of human failure, the comedy of God’s unwavering love for His creation, and the fairy tale of His willingness to enter in and save the world: ‘without God’, he writes in Now and Then (1983), ‘all mankind labors and is heavy laden, the Gospel must be heard as tragedy first before it can be heard as a comedy in which all are given rest if they will only come unto him, and as a fairy tale last of all in which, as I put it, impossible things have to impossible people.’
Telling the Truth is for preachers, for laity, and for those who wonder if faith is feasible, or even desirable. With its unique insights into God, people, and the Good News, it will surprise those who have read the Bible 1,000 times, and those who have never opened it:
Let the preacher tell the truth. Let him preach this overcoming of tragedy by comedy, of darkness by light, of the ordinary by the extraordinary, as the tale that is too good not to be true because to dismiss it as untrue is to dismiss along with it that 'catch of the breath, that beat and lifting of the heart near to or even accompanied by tears,' which I believe is the deepest intuition of truth that we have.
Reviews
"You don’t have to be in the habit of going to church to listen to such a literary minister; you don’t have to be a believer to be moved by Mr. Buechner’s faith."
— John Irving
"When I forget the power of the word, I read Frederick Buechner. When I forget the deep relief of telling the truth, I read Frederick Buechner. When I forget to look for the holiness all around me, I read Frederick Buechner. When I forget why the gospel matters, I read Frederick Buechner."
— Barbara Brown Taylor
"Frederick Buechner is one of my favorite writers, and has been for a long, long time."
— Anne Lamott
"Frederick Buechner is one of our finest writers."
— Annie Dillard
