The titular characters in Frederick Buechner’s historical novels Godric (1980) and Brendan (1987) are wayward priests and unsaintly saints, “just as clay-footed and full of shadows as the rest of us,” and yet, nonetheless, remarkable ministers of divine grace. In his portrayal of such saints, Buechner probes one of the central questions raised by the fourth-century Donatist Controversy—namely, whether the sinfulness of the minister compromises the divine grace which is mediated through his ministry. As we shall see, Buechner’s vision is profoundly Augustinian—and yet, his is an Augustinianism inflected through the Protestant Reformation and into Modernity. Even so, Buechner upholds the wisdom and hope of the ancient Church for the contemporary Church, as the Church reels from and reckons with the exposure of moral failures and ecclesial scandals.
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