Nevertheless, there is the great problem of distinguishing slander from the normal give-and-take we talk about, perhaps too indulgently, and apart from the serious business of appraising the state of the country and the quality of its leadership. If we are to continue as a democracy, we must find a way to stabilize the language and temper of our debates and disputes. We can see now that intemperate speech can spiral off into fear and rage, that we are as vulnerable to incendiary language as any society ever has been, that we become loyal to our hostilities and reduce our words to weapons, a phenomenon not unrelated to the recent tendency of some to amass weapons. Any of us knows as experience the difference between evaluating the truth of an accusation and seizing on it to fuel our resentments. Always, but certainly in situations when great things are at stake, it behooves Christians to think and act like Christians. This would mean practicing self-restraint, curbing our speech, remembering that our adversaries are owed the respect due to the divine image, which no one can be redeemed enough to be excused from honoring. Dystopian media arose with this Christianity of the Right. It would lose a great part of its market share if Christian standards were applied to its product, and then the atmosphere of this dear country would change in a week. The truth about Obama’s birthplace or Trump’s relations with Russia will never be established to the satisfaction of everyone, but Christians know truth of another order, that human beings are created in the image of God. They are created equal, endowed with unalienable rights—that is, unalienable claims on our respect. This is the truth that has made us free.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my invaluable assistant, Margaret MacInnis, and my wonderful agent, Ellen Levine.
ALSO BY MARILYNNE ROBINSON
FICTION
Housekeeping
Gilead
Home
Lila
NONFICTION
Mother Country: Britain, the Welfare State and Nuclear Pollution
The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought
Absence of Mind: The Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self
When I Was a Child I Read Books
The Givenness of Things
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marilynne Robinson is the author of the novels Lila, Home, Gilead (winner of the Pulitzer Prize), and Housekeeping, and five books of nonfiction: The Givenness of Things, When I Was a Child I Read Books, Mother Country, The Death of Adam, and Absence of Mind. She lives in Iowa. You can sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Preface
What Is Freedom of Conscience?
Theology for This Moment
The Sacred, the Human
The Divine
The American Scholar Now
Grace and Beauty
A Proof, a Test, an Instruction
The Beautiful Changes
Our Public Conversation: How America Talks About Itself
Mind, Conscience, Soul
Considering the Theological Virtues: Faith, Hope, and Love
Integrity and the Modern Intellectual Tradition
Old Souls, New World
Slander
Acknowledgments
Also by Marilynne Robinson
A Note About the Author
Copyright
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
175 Varick Street, New York 10014
Copyright © 2018 by Marilynne Robinson
All rights reserved
First edition, 2018
E-book ISBN: 978-0-374-71778-0
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