In Wishful Thinking, the first book in his much-loved lexical trilogy, Frederick Buechner puts the language of God, the universe, and the human spirit under his wry linguistic microscope. In his often ironic and always keen-sighted reflections on such terms as agnostic, envy, love, and sin, he invited us to look at theses everyday words in new and enlightening ways. Freshly revised and expanded for this edition, Wishful Thinking is a "beguiling" [ Time ] adventure in language for the restless believer, the doubter, and all who love words.

In this second book of his popular lexical trilogy, Frederick Buechner profiles more than 125 of the Bible's most holy and profane people—and one whale. In his lively and witty prose, Buechner brings to life such moments from scripture as: Adam's pangs of regret for a remembered Eden Delilah's last glimpse of Samson as they dragged him away Lazarus' first impressions upon rising from the dead To read Peculiar Treasures is to realize that many of these legendary figures are not who we thought they were. But they are—in their human dreams,ambitions, and imperfections—very much like us.

Awry and thought-provoking jaunt through the spiritual terrain of our everyday language—a lexion of uncommon insight to jar the mind and nourish the soul. "I think of faith as a kind of whistling in the dark, because in much the same way," writes Buechner, "it helps to give us courage and to hold the shadows at bay."