The Hungering Dark [Paperback]

Frederick Buechner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 8, 1985

These powerful reflections on biblical themes by one of today's most popular religious writers point up the truth that the darkness of doubt is often necessary to provoke a hunger for God. The Hungering Dark towers as one of Fredrick Buechner's best statements on contemporary belief challenged by doubt.

Drawing on texts from the Old and New Testaments, The Hungering Dark invites us to discover the hidden face of God, the manifestation of his grace, revealed in stillness, in unexpected places, often "through a glass, darkly." It invites us to say yes to "the possibility of God", and to recover "this fantastic hope that the future belongs to God...that holiness will return to our world."

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In the first essay in this beautiful collection of reflections on biblical themes, Frederick Buechner reminds us of a famous scene in the film La Dolce Vita: a helicopter is flying overhead, and suspended below it is a statue of Jesus. It flies over a swimming pool where a group of girls lounge; the men flying above circle back, trying to get the girls' phone numbers. All of this is immensely amusing to everyone in the audience, Buechner writes, until the camera zooms in on the statue itself, "until just for a moment the screen is filled with just the bearded face of Christ. For a moment, he continues, the theater was silent, "as if the face were their face somehow, their secret face that they had never seen before but that they knew belonged to them." This, he concludes, "is much of what the Christian faith is."

We catch a glimpse of something true, Buechner tells us, and after that glimpse we are never again the same, try as we might to forget it. And the point of these essays, of course, is to remind us. --Doug Thorpe

From the Publisher

Powerful reflections on biblical themes point up the truth that the darkness of doubt is sometimes necessary to provoke a hunger for God and help us discover God's grace.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne (May 8, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060611758
• ISBN-13: 978-0060611750
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #265,868 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Frederick Buechner is the popular author of such nonfiction titles as Telling the Truth, Wishful Thinking, and Peculiar Treasures. The New York Times Book Review described his recently published memoir, The Sacred Journey, as a "beautifully successful experiment." In addition to The Final Beast, which was originally published in 1965, Mr. Buechner is the author of ten other novels, including the bestselling A Long Day's Dying and, most recently, Godric. He makes his home in Rupert, Vermont.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a book worth reading, March 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Hungering Dark (Paperback)

This is a wonderful collection of sermons that both brightens and enlightens. Mr. Buechner has a manner of writing that brings joy and strengthens faith. In the still quiet of a room, read this book. It helps.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Its about life...., August 4, 2001

By 

Nawfal "Q" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hungering Dark (Paperback)

Like all of Buechner's books, I can't tell you what they are about. They are about life. Its ups and downs and sorrows and joys. Buechner writes prose like he is a poet. Sure, he's a Calvinist preacher, but he isn't as curt as C.S. Lewis can be, and he is certainly not going to cram Christianity down your throat. I bawled through Chapters 7 & 8, and read the whole book in one afternoon. I will be reading it again, for sure.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A light in the dark., April 26, 2001

By 

tvtv3 "tvtv3" (Sorento, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Hungering Dark (Paperback)

Within all of us there is a longing, a hungering that we cannot fill on our own. Nevertheless, we all try to fill it: whether it is through people, money, things, work, education, fame. We end up living in a world of shadows and if we realize this, we wake up and find ourselves in the dark. What causes this hunger that leads us into the dark? The answer is simple enough: God. Yet, simplicity is complex. In this book full full of joy and hope, Beuchner examines this issue helping to enlighten the struggle we all face with the hungering dark.