Marilynne Robinson on Biblical Interpretation, Calvinist Thought, and Religion in America

Conversations with Tyler

Society & Culture, Education

4.8 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2024

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Marilynne Robinson is one of America's best and best-known novelists and essayists, whose award-winning works like Housekeeping and Gilead explore themes of faith, grace, and the intricacies of human nature. Beyond her writing, Robinson's 25-year tenure at the famed Iowa Writers' Workshop allowed her to shape and inspire the new generations of writers. Her latest book, Reading Genesis, displays her scholarly prowess, analyzing the biblical text not only through the lens of religious doctrine but also appreciating it as a literary masterpiece.

She joined Tyler to discuss betrayal and brotherhood in the Hebrew Bible, the relatable qualities of major biblical figures, how to contend with the Bible's seeming contradictions, the true purpose of Levitical laws, whether we've transcended the need for ritual sacrifice, the role of the Antichrist, the level of biblical knowledge among students, her preferred Bible translation, whether The Winter's Tale makes sense, the evolution of Calvin's reputation and influence, why academics are overwhelmingly secular, the success of the Iowa Writer's Workshop, why she wrote a book on nuclear pollution, what she'll do next, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.

Recorded February 8th, 2024.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Conversations with Tyler is produced by the Mercadus Center at George Mason University,
0:09.0	bridging the gap between academic ideas and real world problems.
0:13.0	Learn more at Merkatus.org.
0:16.0	For a full transcript of every conversation, enhanced with helpful links,
0:20.0	visit Conversations with Tyler.com.
0:24.0	Hello everyone and welcome back to Conversations with Tyler.
0:30.0	Today I'm talking with Marilyn Robinson, one of America's best and best known writers.
0:36.0	She is also a non-fiction essayist, and now she has a new book out called Reading Genesis by Marilyn Robinson, which I recommend highly.
0:45.2	Marilyn, welcome. Thank you very much. Why is betraying a brother such a
0:50.8	prominent theme in the Hebrew Bible?
0:53.0	Well, I think it's sort of a small model of the offenses against ourselves as human beings
1:00.6	that happen at every scale.
1:03.0	And it seems in the Hebrew Bible, the older brother typically does worse or is somehow
1:08.6	dethroned or put down. Why is that? What is that telling us? I think that there's no necessity, no causality in the way that things work among human beings, you know, that God is free to choose the younger brother.
1:23.9	The conventions of human society, primogeniture, and so on
1:28.3	are not salient in terms of God's intentions.
1:32.6	So in your Calvinist view,
1:34.3	is it elevating predestination
1:36.6	over human institutions and human choices?
1:39.4	I don't think, I mean,
1:41.1	poor old Calvin always comes up, you know, but I don't think that there's any theologian
1:45.2	who ever walked the earth who didn't say that David was chosen over his brothers because it was the intention of
	...

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