Marilyne Robinson, author of Gilead, makes the Old Testament new again

Marilyne Robinson, author of Gilead, makes the Old Testament new again


Robinson begins with a statement of intent: to restore religion to the center of our world and common humanity. Faith, he insists, must revive our stagnant lives of the 21st century: “It is amazing how the level of thought has decreased and lost serious theology.†Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his novel “Gilead†Robinson. considers serious issues in clear-eyed prose; his close reading forces us to reimagine these characters (and I say that as a former Baptist from Tennessee, who, as a child, read the book of Genesis several times).

He beautifully orchestrates the angst of Noah, Sarah, and the wonderful, flawed Jacob, enhancing their drama with his star theme: God’s covenant with Abraham and his descendants. He shines a light on the book’s devices, from subtle parallelism to slanderous language to concrete realism, with just hints of magic, such as the fate of Lot’s wife. Where other critics see myth, he sees technique, which has shaped his career. (As he notes elsewhere, “realism has been such a dominant style among American writers for so many generations that it is easy to forget that it is a style.â€)

He highlights the mistakes of ancestors and ancestors alike, a family love that overcomes Freuds Freud. The competition between the brothers – Cain and Abel, Esau and Jacob – finds parallels in the competition between the sisters, Leah and Rachel, and the mistress and concubine, Sarah and Hagar. Robinson mocks the scene in which Jacob wrestles with angels: the Hebrew noun is translated as man rather than angel or messenger. The complexity of meaning speaks to the masks we use to cover up our true selves. The difference between God and angels has faded,†he writes. “There is also a figure of a person whom Jacob and the text understand to be God. That these identities can be water is important.â

Joseph’s sale into slavery in Egypt is a clever essay in itself, glittering like a Faberge egg in the middle of brain analysis: “The Midianites have Joseph, and the Ishmaelites have the shekel, and Joseph’s brothers have nothing but a tied coat. a symbol of their father’s love for him and the evil plot they planned at the beginning to hide his murder.” Rebekah, Isaac’s wife with many hatreds, comes from that page, “a. unique voice,†though the supposed profile of an unhappily married woman —similar to the main character in Robinson’s novel— delivery beats.

Hence his Achilles heel. Occasionally Robinson’s metaphysics intrudes, turning the story into here-and-now motifs, or (worse) proselytizing for its own sake. He is an analyst when he interprets words such as the struggle to get the father’s blessing and the impotence of God; The Bible as literature can be its true subject. For him, though, Genesis is more, a bone key that unlocks a divine mystery; any textual lacuna or needle jump he puts under “provision” and “sacred history.” He sees God’s will, “is so strong and stable that it can allow space in the provision for people to be who they are.” €

In the name of theology he jumps from Job to Psalms to the Epistles of Paul, leaving a mess — why not just stick to the original stories themselves? Robinson allows theology to lead Genesis by the nose and not the other way around. Mapping the human genome, for example, proves our DNA is identical to that of other primates — we also share metabolic pathways with yeast and lab worms — but he ignores evolutionary biology, the fossil record, even the methodology of scientific. “Modern anthropology has tended to build up or out of or down from reductionist definitions, humans as naked apes, as selfish genes,†he suggests, referring to evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins’ slim, 1976 volume. “Biblical anthropology begins with an exalted concept of humanity, then contemplates our faults and limitations and our capacity for grace and truth.

These sentences show incredible contempt — fear? — of any intellectual threat, whether it is Hawking or Darwin: “Humans are at the center of it all. Love and sorrow are, in this infinite Creation, things of the kind we share with God. The fact that they are in the deepest parts of our unexpanded and undiscovered souls makes them all the more amazing, against the roaring world.

Our species is the measure of all things, according to Robinson. That’s right, but why should the wisdom and pleasures of Genesis be limited to a Judeo-Christian audience (especially Protestants), the supposed people of the covenant? Are Buddhists and Muslims allowed to enjoy his thrilling narrative if they reject Robinson’s doctrine? Why pull a literary bridge? “Reading Genesis†is a fascinating and thought-provoking work, yet it raises troubling questions about religious faith in an age of conflict – too many questions. Perhaps Robinson could question his beliefs, their pros and cons, in another book.

THE BEGINNING OF READING

By Marilynne Robinson

Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 352 pp., $29

Hamilton Cain is a book reviewer and author of the memoir, “This Young Man’s Faith: Notes From a Southern Baptist Upbringing.â€