Marilynne Robinson's Simple Wisdom

by Ben Gibson

We are bombarded each day with the world’s seemingly intractable problems and with differing guidance on how we should respond to those problems. According to some, the world’s complex problems should be left to those with complex answers. According to others, we need to spend less time mucking about in nuance and instead identify the clear rights and wrongs contributing to the world’s problems. Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead provides a path between these incomplete solutions for addressing the world’s problems.

The book is not short on complex problems. The narrator, Pastor John Ames, confronts intellectual and societal problems throughout the book—mostly encountered through his prodigal godson Jack—including racism, pacifism, predestination, providence, and apostasy. By his own estimation, through weekly sermons delivered to his local congregation, John Ames had written roughly as much as Augustine and Thomas Aquinas in addressing these issues. From all appearances, complex problems req…