Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC

by Frederick Buechner

In Wishful ThinkingWishful Thinking, the first book in his much-loved lexical trilogy, Frederick Buechner puts the language of God, the universe, and the human spirit under his wry linguistic microscope. In his often ironic and always keen-sighted reflections on such terms as agnostic, envy, love,agnostic, envy, love, and sinsin, he invited us to look at theses everyday words in new and enlightening ways. Freshly revised and expanded for this edition, Wishful ThinkingWishful Thinking is a "beguiling" [TimeTime] adventure in language for the restless believer, the doubter, and all who love words.

BUY NOW

Paperback, 144 pages

Published September 24th 1993 by HarperOne (first published January 1st 1973)

tags: theology, spirituality, reference, faith, christianity, church, religion, nonfiction, christian living, christian

Book Quotes

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

― Frederick Buechner

topics: Inspirador

“Lust is the craving for salt of a man who is dying of thirst.”

― Frederick Buechner

topics: Love, Lust, Sex

“if you don't have doubts you're either kidding yourself or asleep. Doubts are the ants-in-the-pants of faith. They keep it alive and moving.”

― Frederick Buechner

“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 neighbour'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. Jesus didn't forgive his executioners on principle but because in some unimaginable way he was able to love them. 'Principle' is an even duller word than 'Religion'.”

― Frederick Buechner

topics: Christianity, Ethics, Jesus, Love, Morality, Principles

“Of the seven deadly sins, anger is possbly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back--in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.”

― Frederick Buechner

topics: Humor, Inspirador

“There's no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about any more than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream or earn good looks or bring about your own birth.”

― Frederick Buechner

topics: Enlightening, Inspirador, Spirituality

“In other words to live Eternal Life in the full and final sense is to be with God as Christ is with him, and with each other as Christ is with us.”

― Frederick Buechner

topics: Christianity, Faith

“I think of a person I haven't seen or thought of for years, and ten minutes later I see her crossing the street. I turn on the radio to hear a voice reading the biblical story of Jael, which is the story that I have spent the morning writing about. A car passes me on the road, and its license plate consists of my wife's and my initials side by side. When you tell people stories like that, their usual reaction is to laugh. One wonders why. I believe that people laugh at coincidence as a way of relegating it to the realm of the absurd and of therefore not having to take seriously the possibility that there is a lot more going on in our lives than we either know or care to know. Who can say what it is that's going on? But I suspect that part of it, anyway, is that every once and so often we hear a whisper from the wings that goes something like this: "You've turned up in the right place at the right time. You're doing fine. Don't ever think that you've been forgotten.”

― Frederick Buechner

“To confess your sins to God is not to tell God anything God doesn't already know. Until you confess them, however, they are the abyss between you. When you confess them, they become the Golden Gate Bridge.”

― Frederick Buechner

topics: Christianity, Confession, God, Sin

“More than the painting you see or the music you hear, the words you read become in the very act of reading them part of who you are, especially if they are the words of exceptionally promising writers. If there is poison in the words, you are poisoned; if there is nourishment, you are nourished; if there is beauty, you are made a little more beautiful. In Hebrew, the word dabar means both word and also deed. A word doesn’t merely say something, it does something. It brings something into being.”

― Frederick Buechner

topics: Christian, Reading Books, Theology, Word

“One of the blunders religious people are particularly fond of making is the attempt to be more spiritual than God.”

― Frederick Buechner

“The contradiction is resolved when you realize that for Jesus peace seems to have meant not the absence of struggle, but the presence of love. -p83”

― Frederick Buechner

topics: Jesus, Paradox, Peace

“The real turning point in human history is less apt to be the day the wheel is invented or Rome falls than the day a boy is born to a couple of hick Jews.”

― Frederick Buechner

topics: Bethlehem, History, Jesus

“The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you I created the universe. I love you.”

― Frederick Buechner

topics: Abc, Grace, Theology

“To forgive somebody is to say one way or another, "You have done something unspeakable, and by all rights I should call it quits between us. Both my pride and my principles demand no less. However, although I make no guarantees that I will be able to forget what you've done, and though we may both carry the scars for life, I refuse to let it stand between us. I still want you for my friend." To accept forgiveness means to admit that you've done something unspeakable that needs to be forgiven, and thus both parties must swallow the same thing: their pride.”

― Frederick Buechner

topics: Forgiveness, Pride, Principles

Frederick Buechner

Carl Frederick Buechner is an American writer and theologian. Born July 11, 1926 in New York City, he is an ordained Presbyterian minister and the author of more than thirty published books thus far. His work encompasses different genres, including fiction, autobiography, essays and sermons, and his career has spanned six decades. Buechner's books have been translated into many languages for publication around the world.

Frederick Buechner is among the most widely read contemporary Christian authors. His popularity is attested by numerous awards and honorary degrees. Buechner's work has often been praised for its ability to inspire readers to see the grace in their daily lives.
... Show more

Obtenga el versículo bíblico diario todos los días en su bandeja de entrada

Leer en el móvil

Más buscado

Hoy dia

7 días

30 días

Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC

BUY NOW

Book Quotes

Frederick Buechner

Grupo de marcas