In an extended dialogue between Marilynne Robinson and Barack Obama, published a few years ago in the New York Review of Books, Obama homes in on the dimension of Robinson’s writing that makes her so unusual as a 21st-century literary figure. “You’re a novelist,” he observes, “but you’re also – can I call you a theologian? Does that sound, like, too stuffy? You care a lot about Christian thought.”
This could be described as something of an understatement. Robinson wears her faith on the sleeves of most of her books. In the epic Gilead series, which brought her a Pulitzer prize and worldwide renown, she probes with gentle but forensic subtlety into the religious preoccupations – and doubts – of two fictional midwest pastors. More recently, in collections of essays such as What Are We Doing Here?, she combines theology with cultural commentary to explore what her vision of a Christian humanism might contribute to a politically polarised, divided, 21st-century west.
