"Loyalty to Myself at the Very Least": Historical, Religious, and Narrative Commitments in Marilynne Robinson's Gilead

This essay examines the figural role and historical context of John Brown in Marilynne Robinson's novel Gilead. Brown's participation in the events known as Bleeding Kansas are referenced in the novel both as a founding trauma for generational conflict among the narrator, his father, and g...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ivry, Jonathan (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 2024
In: Religion & literature
Year: 2023, Volume: 55, Issue: 2/3, Pages: 147-167
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Robinson, Marilynne 1944-, Gilead / Brown, John 1800-1859 / Violent behavior / Christianity
RelBib Classification:CD Christianity and Culture
CG Christianity and Politics
KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history
KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history
KBQ North America
NCD Political ethics
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)

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520 |a This essay examines the figural role and historical context of John Brown in Marilynne Robinson's novel Gilead. Brown's participation in the events known as Bleeding Kansas are referenced in the novel both as a founding trauma for generational conflict among the narrator, his father, and grandfather (all named John Ames), and as a symbolic representation of an activist Christian theology that justifies violence on moral grounds. Contrary to the dominant view of Brown today as a heroic extremist, Robinson references this specific history in the novel to construct a theological argument that rejects all violence, regardless of apparent moral righteousness, as a fundamental misreading of the Christian message. By reading some of Robinson's essays against key passages in the novel, I show how Robinson develops a strong and consistent theological position counter to John Brown, one that is rooted in her understanding of the Puritan and Calvinist origins of American Congregationalism and abolitionism and that is linked in the novel to an understanding of narrative as anchored in deferred resolution alongside faith in eventual redemptive outcomes. 
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