About time …

… Pushing Back Against Marilynne Robinson's Theology | Church Life Journal | University of Notre Dame. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

For Robinson, grace is free for all, found everywhere, and in everything. This grace sounds wonderful, but it ignores the problem of evil. I know that Robinson prefers to highlight the goodness in creation and is frustrated by dark writers who she considers misanthropic. However, writers who acknowledge darkness and evil represent reality as it is, not how we wish it to be. A world that glimmers and shines, as it does in Robinson’s novel, paints over the ugly, but by doing so, marginalizes injustice.

I gather from some other things that I have read that Robinson’s fondness for Calvin depends on downplaying his notions of predestination and total depravity. The school system and social welfare agencies he established in Geneva apparently appeal to her because it makes him seem like a modern liberal. I have not read Gilead, but I reviewed Home, which I thought well-written, but otherwise forgettable.