About This Book
1975. Christopher Reed, a young minister in his first job,
receives much-needed seasoning, is necessarily dis-illusioned.
How? On one level by having an affair with Becky,
one of his teen-aged parishioners. But the affair is begun on
a theological dare so to speak, in order to test a intriguing
vision of the freedom of the Gospel which Dr. Buttrick, the
senior pastor under whom Reed works, a truly Christ-like
man (though it depends, of course, on what your image of
Jesus is) has presented. “Scrupulous,†or guilt-stricken,
Reed tells his wife Vinnie, an artist and a free thinker, what
he has done with Becky. Vinnie erupts, then curiously
adjusts, gradually accommodates herself, allows the affair
to continue. Reed also tells Dr. Buttrick what he has done.
Great-spirited, a wise old man, a genius, Dr. Buttrick listens
and counsels. He counsels both Reed and Vinnie. The
three of them discuss the limits of marriage, the relevance
of Christianity to same. Vinnie and Dr. Buttrick have their
own intense relationship. Meanwhile the meteoric Becky
moves through her senior year in high school, fights free of
her youth and prepares to leave for college. Obsessed
almost, Reed suffers at the prospect of “losing†her. And
grows in some ways as a person or at least as a pastor,
learning to expect less of the flock which he supposedly
leads, since it often acts less than nobly. Some members
even turn on Dr. Buttrick, the genuinely good man, in the
year of the novel’s action.
I have a Ph.D. in English Renaissance literature from
Princeton University (specialty: Spenser).I have
co-authored, with the late William F. Orr of Pittsburgh
Theological Seminary, a book called Living Hope: a Study
of the New Testament Theme of Birth from Above
(Sunstone Press, 1990). I have written two books of poetry
(unpublished so far), I have translated Beowulf from
Anglo-Saxon and am at present translating The Iliad from
Greek. I am also contemplating an epic poem of my own on
the year 1968.
