Welcome to the Buechner Institute

Here you can find information about:

• our current programming,
• peruse the roster of past presenters, and
• hear about our mission to encourage conversation on issues of faith and culture

And check out our new blog for thoughts on faith and culture, programming at the Institute, and more.

We'd love to welcome you to King College where we have established this center in honor of novelist and preacher Frederick Buechner.

Fred at 84.

©Blake Gardner Photography

The Buechner Institute Turns Four:

A Letter from the Director

We are living through a time when our failures in the realm of words, thoughtfulness, and ethics have roused us to re-attend to the venerable questions raised by faith and liberal learning.  One of this year's presenters, Katherine Paterson, says that "The consolation of the imagination is not imaginary consolation."  Among other things, Paterson's comment suggests that the shriveling of the imagination ought to concern us deeply.

But some say that a new wind is beginning to blow.  Perhaps we are seeing a renaissance, a revival of interest in the old verities of the human arts.

Perhaps we are learning again that, indeed, "Life consisteth not in the abundance of things which a man possesseth" (Luke 12:15).

This year's offerings from the Buechner Institute hope to make a contribution to this revitalization. Our visitors in 2010-2011 will attempt to broaden our horizons and challenge us to move beyond our caves of indifference and ignorance.

Fred Buechner puts it this way in Wishful Thinking: "We are much involved, all of us, with questions about things that matter a good deal today but will be forgotten by this time tomorrow-the immediate wheres and when and hows that face us daily at home and at work-but at the same time we tend to lose track of the questions that matter always, life-and-death questions about meaning, purpose, and value.  To lose track of such deep questions as these is to risk losing track of who we really are in our own depths and where we are really going."

The gift of this Buechner Institute program to you is in the opportunity to meet prophets and preachers, performers and artists, who can take us, via the imagination, into new possibility and refreshing change.

I know you are busy, fraught with the demands of a constantly jangling world.  Please view these offerings as an occasion for reaching beyond the muddle.  Do join us as often as you can.

Blessings,

Dale Brown

2010-2011 Schedule

September

We'll open the new year with Marilyn Chandler McEntyre, poet, professor, and author of Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies.  Other programs in September will feature Christian activist Shane Claiborne and Brian McLaren, the Christian leader and author.  They will carry us into an analysis of what's afoot in the church these days.  Mark David Hall, Herbert Hoover Distinguished Professor of Political Science at George Fox University, will close out the month with his reflections on the so-called "Founding Fathers."

October

We will talk about business ethics and faith with Clifton Lambreth of the Ford Motor Company as well as welcome children's writer Nikki Grimes.

November

Ryan Reed, a documentary photographer who has done much work in the Sudan, will be with us in November, and we will celebrate Schumann and Chopin's 200^th birthdays with a visit from concert pianist Kenneth Huber.

December

"The Birth," a theatrical production inspired in part by the work of Frederick Buechner, will be the month's big event.  Nathan Rouse will bring his troupe to Bristol from Charlotte, North Carolina where "The Birth" has had successful runs for several years.  The two shows in Bristol will be on December 3 and 4.

Buechner Lectureship: January 28-29, 2011

You may want to join us for our big birthday event on January 28 and 29, 2011.  Buechner Institute national advisory board member Katherine Paterson will be the featured speaker as we celebrate our third anniversary.  You know Katherine as a much beloved writer and the current National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.  She is also an alumna of King College. King College's Theater department will present two showings of "The Bridge to Terabithia" as part of the weekend's festivities. All of this year's inaugural events will be held at the Paramount Theater on historic State Street in Bristol, TN/VA.

Spring 2011

Already booked for the spring programs:

Cathleen Falsani, syndicated columnist and author; David and Ginger Hildebrand, who research, record, and perform early American music; and Mark Bauerlein, author of The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future.  In April, Barbara Bates Smith will be with us to perform a play based on the work of Lee Smith.  We will be arranging this as a kind of community read.  We may even have space for another "Buechner Bonus" in the spring.

And Save the Date for.....Buechnerfest 2011

May 25-29, 2011 will be our first Buechnerfest.  Plan to join us for talk about Fred's work alongside enjoying the pleasures of this region-kayaking, bluegrass, hiking, and more.

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