Marilynne Robinson on theology, the soul, and re-enchanting the human story

"What is the nature of a human soul? Marilynne Robinson has sought to re-enchant the divine mystery of everyday human life in her novels.
Marilynne is a Pulitzer Prize winning author of bestselling works including 'Housekeeping', 'Gilead', 'Home' and 'Lila'. As a Christian she has a deep interest in the way theology and scripture speak to contemporary life. Belle and Justin chat to Marilynne about how her novels and essays have sought to re-enchant the human story.
For Re-Enchanting: www.seenandunseen.com/podcast
There’s more to life than the world we can see. Re-Enchanting is a podcast from Seen & Unseen recorded at Lambeth Palace Library, the home of the Centre for Cultural Witness. Justin Brierley and Belle Tindall engage faith and spirituality with leading figures in science, history, politics, art and education. Can our culture be re-enchanted by the vision of Christianity?"

[@helendeacon7637]

Thank you for interviewing Marilynne Robinson! An extraordinary novelist and essayist. Great conversation!

[@MelodeeHansen]

I’ve been looking for more intellectual and deep thinking women in podcasts! Marilyn is someone I will follow.

[@GinnyShilliday]

Justin and Belle, I love this new podcast. Thank you so much!

[@ohmy4275]

Thank you for this interview and for sharing it with us. I would take Marilynne Robinson over any other writer writing fiction or otherwise. I love her faith in patience. The modern world lacks patience. We are too addicted to instant gratification. And I know some would not like the term but her fiction is like Midwest gothic to me. A very alluring setting and characters. Lila is my favourite of her books. I knew it would be good but really had no idea how good. Lastly, congratulations to both the interviewers. A pleasure to listen to you. You are polite and well informed.

[@MelodeeHansen]

Women are natural enchanters. I love that I came across this channel.

[@shannonhpolson]

What a very thoughtful interview with a truly great writer and thinker. thank you.

[@novianovioTV]

I found this by KZbin search having just read Gilead. What I like about Marilynne Robinson is she creates and follows her own trains of thought. It’s refreshing as most people are unable to resist the easy safety of copying each other starting with idiolect. I like that she was expected to pontificate on writing fiction but currently finds quantum physics more fascinating. There are some great science videos on KZbin. I especially like ones about space. Gilead is excellent. She was being modest when you asked about the 20-some year gap. Had she been naughty she would have retorted: have you read it? Then you’ll know why it took so long. It’s like a finely woven Bible concordance articulated through characters and their life observations

[@dearestsimone]

Surely finding our own soul 'interesting' can be a fruit of death to self, in the sense that Christ makes possible for us. As Christ, our ultimate freedom and justification, increases in us, we are set into order: we correspondingly 'decrease'; we grow more objective toward ourselves, we notice ourselves from an unstuck place. We can rightly judge our being-created selves as attractive and interesting, as we do all of creation more and more. Marvelous!

[@elias.knotman]

Thank you for such a wonderful conversation. This had me thinking for days! I have to take issue, that said, with Marilynne Robinson’s view on technology and the way we use our time. It seems rashly optimistic, and perhaps I have read too much Dostoyevsky, to assume human beings will use their time constructively. Our ongoing experiment appears to prove otherwise (I think Paul Kingsnorth is instructive on this topic - another excellent interview on this channel). Elsewhere MR talks about instruction - given the affordances of persuasive design that is present in many digital tech, isn’t this seed falling amidst the thorns?

[@dearestsimone]

Belle, have you read Thomas Traherne's 'Centuries'? He will take you by the hand and lead you on further!

[@peterboos930]

Belle the mics are blocking your face 😖