Reading Genesis

Description

One of our greatest novelists and thinkers presents a radiant, thrilling interpretation of the book of Genesis.

For generations, the book of Genesis has been treated by scholars as a collection of documents, by various hands, expressing different factional interests, with borrowings from other ancient literatures that mark the text as derivative. In other words, academic interpretation of Genesis has centered on the question of its basic coherency, just as fundamentalist interpretation has centered on the question of the appropriateness of reading it as literally true.

Both of these approaches preclude an appreciation of its greatness as literature, its rich articulation and exploration of themes that resonate through the whole of Scripture. Marilynne Robinson’s Reading Genesis is a powerful consideration of the profound meanings and promise of God’s enduring covenant with man. This magisterial book radiates gratitude for the constancy and benevolence of God’s abiding faith in Creation.PRAISE FOR READING GENESIS

“A deeply thoughtful exploration of the first book of the Bible. […] Robinson approaches Genesis with a reverence and level of faith uncommon to modern mainstream writers, yet she’s also equipped with the appropriate tools for cogent criticism. […] In this highly learned yet accessible book, Robinson offers believers fresh insight into a well-studied text.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

PRAISE FOR MARILYNNE ROBINSON

“Marilynne Robinson displays the same passionate concern with matters of faith that suffuses her majestic trilogy of linked novels.”
—Wendy Smith, Boston Globe

“Robinson’s handiwork is capacious and serious, but also mysterious and wondrous; like the night sky, it deserves our attention.”
—Casey N. Cep, The New Republic

“Robinson’s genius is for making indistinguishable the highest ends of faith and fiction . . . The beauty of Robinson’s prose suggests an author continually threading with spun platinum the world’s finest needle.”
—Michelle Orange, Bookforum

“One of Robinson’s great merits . . . is her refusal to take her opinions secondhand . . . A goad to renewed curiosity.”
—Roger Kimball, New York Times Book ReviewMARILYNNE ROBINSON is the author of Gilead, winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award; Home (2008), winner of the Orange Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Lila (2014), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Jack (2020), a New York Times bestseller. Her first novel, Housekeeping (1980), won the PEN/Hemingway Award. Robinson’s nonfiction books include The Givenness of Things (2015), When I Was a Child I Read Books (2012), Absence of Mind (2010), The Death of Adam (1998), and Mother Country (1989). She is the recipient of a 2012 National Humanities Medal, awarded by President Barack Obama, for “her grace and intelligence in writing.”CA

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