Marilynne Robinson is a writer who requires little introduction. Her novels Housekeeping and Gilead, at this point certifiable classics, are staples in recommended reading lists. It’s relatively uncontroversial to say that Robinson is one of our greatest living writers. Her nonfiction writing, which many find less accessible, also has much to commend it. She has produced masterful essay collections on a range of subjects from the personal to the political to the theological. Her latest, Reading Genesis, is a remarkable interpretation of the first book of the Bible that demonstrates her literary mind, her scholarly competence, and the importance of her faith. In this ambitious work, Robinson focuses on Genesis specifically, but as she demonstrates, this is a book about Genesis as an interpretive key to the whole of Christian scripture, demonstrating God’s love, goodness, and care for creation and especially humankind, the creatures made in his image.
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