Peculiar Treasures

Good book for anyone, I use it in my classroom to give my students more information on certain Biblical characters.

"Peculiar Treasures" is Buechner's second in a trilogy of lexicon-style expositions, this time focusing on Biblical characters. Including some virtual unknowns alongside the "heavyweights", Buechner examines each person and tries to discover what makes them unique. Since the Biblical characters might not always be immediately familiar to the reader, there is necessarily increased length to the entries, and thus fewer entries, relative to Buechner's other two books in this series. While not quite as good as "Wishful Thinking", this book is still excellent and thought-provoking.

Having enjoyed Mr. Buechner's biblical fiction, I also picked up this volume of his musings on the people of the Bible. I wasn't disappointed.I don't know if I would recommend it as a who's who to non Christians who want a quick reference - some of the entries don't make sense if you don't know your Bible - but for those who do, it's an often amusing reflection on our faith. It's also sometimes profound. Some of my favorites - Why do discussions of David and Jonathan anymore seem to revolve around whether or not they were gay and miss the point of their wonderful friendship? What would Uriah have to say about his murder if he could chat with us now? Was Gabriel as scared as Mary during the Annunciation? What happened if, as is likely, Jesus and Judas met again when Jesus descended into hell? This is one to keep next to your Bible. Mr. Buechner's worldview is comforting and compassionate, and this volume speaks as a little gospel light.

Buechner brings out the insightful traits of many Bible Characters. Each sketch prompts thought and creates a desire to meet these people and ask them questions.After reading these sketches you will never read another name in the Bible without thinking who this person was in real life.

In these short, pithy portraits of 125 Bible characters, Buechner has put together a humorous and entertaining bunch of folks who in most ways are just like ourselves. Buechner writes with a light touch and his humor gives pizzazz to this book.