Marilynne Robinson and Theology

Dr Belinda Summers

Belinda is a writer, editor and sessional academic at Macquarie University. She received a scholarship to do her PhD research on the theology in the work of Marilynne Robinson and has been Don Bank Writer in Residence at North Sydney.  Belinda has published fiction, non-fiction and a textbook chapter with Bloomsbury Academic. Her favourite book of Robinson’s is Home, which Martin Scorsese has just said will be his next film project.

Abstract

Marilynne Robinson’s novels are soaked with theology, and this seminar investigates the nature of that theology and how it shapes the narrative arc of her fiction. On the issue of human perception, Robinson moves in the same direction, but beyond Calvin. On personal holiness, Robinson diverges from Calvin, and that Robinson rejuvenates Calvin’s aesthetics by writing her fiction from an apologetic of beauty.

I had the privilege of interviewing Robinson in person on two occasions, to inform my research: at Regent College, Vancouver, where she delivered the 2017 Laing Lectures on the intersection of culture and faith. And in 2018, at the Wheaton College theological conference, ‘Balm in Gilead’, where international scholars dialogued with Robinson about her work. In my initial interview, I focused on the theological issues raised in her trilogy, Gilead (2004), Home (2008) Lila (2014) especially the doctrine of predestination and its shadow side of hell and judgment. My second interview occurred just after the publication of Robinson’s latest book of essays, What Are We Doing Here? (2018). The repeated mention of the power of beauty throughout her essays led me to focus our second discussion on the apologetic of beauty, from which I believe Robinson writes her fiction.