New essays on theological, political, and contemporary themes, by the Pulitzer Prize winner
Marilynne Robinson has plumbed the human spirit in her renowned novels, including Lila, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Gilead, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In this new essay collection she trains her incisive mind on our modern political climate and the mysteries of faith. Whether she is investigating how the work of great thinkers about America like Emerson and Tocqueville inform our political consciousness or discussing the way that beauty informs and disciplines daily life, Robinson's peerless prose and boundless humanity are on full display. What Are We Doing Here? is a call for Americans to continue the tradition of those great thinkers and to remake American political and cultural life as "deeply impressed by obligation [and as] a great theater of heroic generosity, which, despite all, is sometimes palpable still."
Table of Contents:
Preface
* What Is Freedom of Conscience?
* What Are We Doing Here?
* Theology for this Moment
* The Sacred, the Human
* The Divine
* The American Scholar Now
* Grace and Beauty
* A Proof, a Test, an Instruction
* The Beautiful Changes
* Our Public Conversation: How America Talks About Itself
* Mind, Conscience, Soul
* Considering the Theological Virtues: Faith, Hope, and Love
* Integrity and the Modern Intellectual Tradition
* Old Souls, New World
* Slander
"[A] collection of learned, probing essays...Robinson's gorgeous, demanding, and enlightening essays, propelled by her intricate vision of unity, radiantly recharge both mind and soul." --Booklist
A dense, eccentric book of profound and generous gifts. --Parul Seghal, The New York Times Book Review
"[Robinson's] eloquent work stands up for a compassionate faith, the value of education, and a sense of decency." -- Publishers Weekly
"[A] trenchant [collection of] essays about faith, values, and history...Sharp, elegant cultural analysis." -- Kirkus Reviews
Marilynne Robinson is the recipient of a 2012 National Humanities Medal, awarded by President Barack Obama, for her grace and intelligence in writing. She is the author of Gilead, winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award; Home, winner of the Orange Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and Lila, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her first novel, Housekeeping, won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. Robinson's nonfiction books include The Givenness of Things, When I Was a Child I Read Books, Absence of Mind, The Death of Adam, and Mother Country. She lives in Iowa City, Iowa.
Picador USA
Pub Date: February 12, 2019
1.0" H x 8.1" L x 5.3" W
336 Pages
Paperback