The Edinburgh books and the Iowa books: the challenge of Marilynne Robinson’s literary-theological recovery of Calvin and Calvinism

Gay, D. (2021) The Edinburgh books and the Iowa books: the challenge of Marilynne Robinson’s literary-theological recovery of Calvin and Calvinism. In: Marilynne Robinson and Theology. Series: KVHAA Konferenser (105). KVHAA (Kungl. Vitterhets Historie Och Antikvitets Akademien): Stockholm, pp. 89-106. ISBN 9789188763259

Abstract

Marilynne Robinson’s fiction and her critical essays have rightly drawn appreciative and even glowing attention from both literary critics and theologians. In this article I trace how, in the Gilead novels, Robinson draws deliberate and significant lines of connection between Iowa and Scotland, which have been underplayed in the existing scholarship. I go on to discuss what lies behind these connections; that is, Robinson’s commitment to a literary-theological recovery of Calvin and Calvinism/Reformed theology, which is performed in the novels and explicated in the critical essays. I relate this discussion of Robinson’s work to established traditions of literary-cultural Calvin/Calvinism reception in Scotland and argue that her work crystallises a challenge to these traditions and opens up new possibilities for the ‘Calvinist novel’ in contemporary Scottish literature.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Keywords: Calvinism, theology, Marilynne Robinson, Scottish Literature, religion and literature.
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Gay, Rev Doug
• Authors: Gay, D.
• Subjects: P Language and Literature > PR English literature
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > Theology and Religious Studies
• Publisher: KVHAA (Kungl. Vitterhets Historie Och Antikvitets Akademien)
• ISBN: 9789188763259