From faith to faith : empiricism, stability, and spiritual renewal in Frederick Buechner's The Book of Bebb.

This thesis examines the frustrated search for stability as outlined in Buechner's Book of Bebb. That search is illustrated in the search for an objective truth which the narrator examines as a potential source of stability. In four volumes, The Book of Bebb delineates a journey which Buechner had already completed. Antonio, the main character in Bebb, begins the novel already relatively open to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. By the end of the first novel he is explaining that without the chaos of senseless experience he could not really understand love, and by the end of the tetralogy, Antonio, though he has been sobered by the cost of understanding love, still affirms the senselessness he has had to undergo to reach that understanding. In the progression of the four novels, characters recognize that emotions affect objectivity. Then they recognize that the structures they construct in their efforts to manage their environment, rather than being the sources of objective stability they wish them to be, are merely vehicles of subjective emotion. The next stage in the characters' journeys is a sense of lostness as they flounder between the structured and the unstructured parts of their lives. While they find structures inadequate, they fear the chaotic feelings that accompany the unstructured parts of their lives. The last stage, which continues till death, is the continued tendency to expect protection from things which can only offer a mask of stability. The result of acting on that tendency is an experience of the falling away of the masks and a sense of the inadequacy of things outside the self to offer stability.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Grantor

Baylor University.

Year dc:date.issued

1988

Author dc:creator

• Hill, Grace Lorraine.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Barcus, James E., 1938-

• Buechner, Frederick, 1926- Book of Bebb.
• Buechner, Frederick, 1926- -- Criticism and interpretation.

Statement dc:rights

• Baylor University works are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. Contact libraryquestions@baylor.edu for inquiries about permission.

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2104/14461

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:baylor-ir.tdl.org:2104/14461