In this Forum, parishioner Peter Brooks will survey Marilynne Robinson’s 2024 book, Reading Genesis. She begins with a provocative claim:

         “The Bible is ... a meditation on the problem of evil.” What?!

Robinson does not ignore the benevolent Creator, the provider of Grace, but sets God on a stage with Creation's errant progeny. When Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph go rogue, God grows in his understanding of humankind, and "accommodates his expectations to the reality of human nature." Her mastery of stories echoes her conjectured voices, notably grandmothers who, over generations, retold and honed the tales we now read. Placing herself onstage as an omni-interpreting narrator, Robinson reads Genesis as a novelist, deliberately ignoring Biblical scholarship. She lays bare conflicts and reconciliations, untangling in particular the recurring rivalries between brothers. Peter's exploration of Reading Genesis will include a personal story of the healing of fraternal estrangement. The Creator did not stop on the seventh day. Bishop Budde’s mantra, springing from belief in the risen Jesus, is age-old: the generative power of God was active in the human worlds of Genesis, through grace, not pardon.