Meet Marilynne Robinson, Humanist in Chief

Marilynne Robinson’s new essay collection, The Givenness of Things, was bound to draw attention–as befits the winner of a Pulitzer Prize for her 2004 novel Gilead. But in September, Robinson earned an honor unusual in any field–an expansive interview conducted by a sitting President. Their discussion, held in Robinson’s adopted state of Iowa, covered faith, morality and humanism–the “Christian thought,” as President Obama put it, driving Robinson’s new work.

Many of the book’s chapters originated as lectures on contemporary culture, but they also serve as guideposts for Robinson’s fiction, which is fundamentally about ideas. Here Robinson, a Calvinist, is interested in medieval Europe and the Reformation; her heroes include Shakespeare (a covert theologian) and the Lollards, English dissidents who advocated for a vernacular Bible. She offers a challenge to contemporary American Christians: “I hope … we do and will share a generous and even a costly readiness to show our respect for all minds and spirits.”

–SARAH BEGLEY