Buechner delivered the sermons included in The Magnificent Defeat as the ‘new school minister’ at the Phillips Exeter Academy, a role he took in 1958 following his graduation from Union Theological Seminary, New York.

To put it more positively, it was to present the faith as appealingly, honestly, relevantly, and skilfully as I could.’[2] Elsewhere, in another anthology of sermons titled Secrets in the Dark (2006), Buechner writes that ‘in keeping with the spirit of the time’, the majority of his students were ‘against almost everything – the Vietnam war, the government, anybody over thirty including their parents, the school, and especially religion’.

[4] Marjorie Casebier McCoy writes that the effect of being faced with such a hostile audience on a weekly basis ‘compelled [Buechner] to hone his preaching and literary skills to their utmost in order to get a hearing for Christian faith.’[5] Now and Then also details the setting, the Phillips Exeter Academy Library, in which Buechner composed his sermons; the author describes himself, ‘sat in the library in a deep leather armchair with my feet on the radiator’.

Jeffrey Munroe places particular significance upon the volume, writing that 'the theological convictions worked out in these pages would stick with Buechner for the rest of his career.

'[11] In the ‘Introductory Note’ to The Magnificent Defeat, Buechner names James Muilenburg, George Buttrick, John Knox, Paul Scherer, and Robert Russell Wicks as influences for both the style and substance of his preaching.