In his second autobiographical work, Now and Then, Buechner recounts his receipt of an invitation to deliver the 1969 William Belden Noble Lectures at Harvard Memorial Church by the chaplain, Charles Price.

Absence of Vowels (8:30 a.m. – 11 p.m.) In Now and Then, Buechner writes that the addresses centre around ‘a single representative day of my life’, and that they consider ‘what there [is] of God to hear in it’.

[4] Throughout the sermons the preacher draws from a broad list of literary and theological influences, including Leo Tolstoy, Mark Twain, G.K. Chesterton, Heinrich Zimmer, and John Milton.

[8] Literary critic Jeffrey Munroe concurs with this, writing that 'The Alphabet of Grace marks a new phase for Buechner's readers'.

Reflecting on The Alphabet of Grace in Now and Then, Buechner offers the following famous summary of the message at the heart of the work: [I]f I were called upon to state in a few words the essence of everything I was trying to say both as a novelist and as a preacher, it would be something like this: Listen to your life.