Marilynne Robinson, Theologian of the Ordinary

Marilynne Robinson, Theologian of the Ordinary posits that Robinsons widely celebrated novels and essays are best understood as emerging from a foundational theology that has 'the Ordinary' as its source. Reading Robinsons published work, and drawing on an original interview with Robinson, Andrew Cunning constructs an authentically Robinsonian theology that is at once distinctly American and conversant with contemporary continental philosophy of religion. This book demonstrates that the Ordinary is the source of Robinsons writing and, as a phenomenon that opens onto a surplus of meaning, is where Robinsons notion of transcendence emerges. Robinsons theology is one centered on the material reality of the world and on the subjective nature of ones encounter with oneself and the physical stuff of existence. Arguing that the Ordinary demands an artistic response, this book reads Robinsons fiction as her theological response to the surplus of meaning in ordinary experience. Under the themes of grace, language, time and self, Cunning locates the ordinary, everyday grounding of Robinsons metaphysics.