Marilynn Robinson, author of Housekeeping, the celebrated Gilead, and Home, says that three insights from John Calvin’s thought guide her work. Thomas Gardner of CT summarizes them:
* The glory of humanity: Made as we are in the image of God, “the great energy that rips galaxies apart also animates our slightest thoughts.”
* The fallenness of humanity: All of us turn away from God's presence, failing “to acknowledge what ought to be obvious.” She calls Calvin’s exposition of fundamental human corruption the “counterweight to Calvin's rapturous humanism.”
* The election of humanity in Christ: True perception—”the radical understanding of the presence of God, and of his nature as manifest in Christ”—is something God must grant a person. It is not natural to our fallen state.
Interesting. For my part, the Pulitzer-prizewinning Gilead sits near the top of the list of my favorite books, Housekeeping (written 25 years before Gilead) disappointed me, and Home is on my to-read list.
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