“It has seemed to me sometimes as though the Lord breathes on this poor gray ember of Creation and it turns to radiance - for a moment or a year or the span of a life. And then it sinks back into itself again, and to look at it no one would know it had anything to do with fire, or light .... Wherever you turn your eyes the world can shine like transfiguration. You don't have to bring a thing to it except a little willingness to see. Only, who could have the courage to see it? .... Theologians talk about a prevenient grace that precedes grace itself and allows us to accept it. I think there must also be a prevenient courage that allows us to be brave - that is, to acknowledge that there is more beauty than our eyes can bear, that precious things have been put into our hands and to do nothing to honor them is to do great harm.”

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About Marilynne Robinson

American novelist and essayist

Marilynne Robinson is an American novelist and essayist. She has written across several decades and is widely known for her fiction and nonfiction. Her work has earned major recognition, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005, the National Humanities Medal in 2012, and the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction in 2016. Robinson taught at the Iowa Writers' Workshop from 1991 until her retirement in spring 2016. In 2016, Time included her on its list of the 100 most influential people. Her writing has been recognized for its literary seriousness and for the range of ideas it addresses.

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Books by Marilynne Robinson

Gilead

2004

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What are we doing here?

2019

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