Buechner's Maxims

Frederick Buechner is the successful author of six published novels (A Long Day's Dying, The Return of Ansel Gibbs, Lion Country) who lives in Vermont with his wife and three children. He is also a graduate of Manhattan's Union Theological Seminary (1958), an ordained Presbyterian minister and the former chaplain to the young men of Phillips Exeter Academy. As it turns out, that combination makes him an off-the-cuff theologian of considerable panache, a talent that he demonstrates in a beguiling new book, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC (Harper & Row; $4.95).

Buechner ("It is pronounced Beek-ner," he explains in a delightful entry that examines the power of names) is no avant-garde divine. He handles difficult subjects (eternity, immortality, prayer) with a casual aplomb and easy analogy. Excerpts:

ON GOD: It is as impossible for man to demonstrate the existence of God as it would be for even Sherlock Holmes to demonstrate the existence of Arthur Conan Doyle.

ON LIFE: The temptation is always to reduce it to size. A bowl of cherries. A rat race. Amino acids. Even to call it a mystery smacks of reductionism. It is the mystery.

ON MYSTICISM: Mysticism is where religions start. Moses with his flocks in Midian, Buddha under the Bo Tree, Jesus up to his knees in the waters of Jordan ... Religion as ethics, institution, dogma, ritual, Scripture, social action, all of this comes later and in the long run maybe counts for less.

ON THE LORD'S SUPPER: It is make-believe ... It is a game you play because he said to play it... Play that it makes a difference. Play that it makes sense. If it seems a childish thing to do, do it in remembrance that you are a child.

ON PRINCIPLES: Principles are what people have instead of God. To be a Christian means among other things to be willing if necessary to sacrifice even your highest principles for God's or your neighbor's sake the way a Christian pacifist must be willing to pick up a baseball bat if there's no other way to stop a man from savagely beating a child.

ON SAINTS: In his holy flirtation with the world, God occasionally drops a handkerchief. These handkerchiefs are called saints.

ON SALVATION: YOU do not love God so that, tit for tat, he will then save you. To love God is to be saved. To love anybody is a significant step along the way.

ON TOLERATION: The question arises about a religion which demands, say, that first-born children be fed to the crocodiles to ensure a good harvest. Somewhere lines have to be drawn.

ON UBIQUITY: Every automobile bears on its license plate a number which represents the number of years that have elapsed since the birth of Christ. This is a powerful symbol of the ubiquity of God and the indifference of man.

ON THEOLOGY: Theology is the study of God and his ways. For all we know, dung beetles may study man and his ways and call it humanology. If so, we would probably be more touched and amused than irritated. One hopes that God feels likewise.

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