On the Quaker Universalist Fellowship blog, Larry Spears writes about Marilynne Robinson's new book, The Givenness of Things (2015).

Marilynne Robinson is the author of Gilead: A Novel (2004), which was awarded the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 2012 National Humanities Medal. She recently heldan extended interview with President Obama for The New York Review of Books (11/5/2015).

Marilynne Robinson is a Quaker Universalist. The universalism is clear. The Quaker part is projection by me, about someone just short of convincement who does not yet know the name Quaker. Marilynne is a “USQ” (Unaware Silent Quaker).

The evidence is in her new book of essays, The Givenness of Things: Essays (1915).

She values silence for augmenting awareness of our constant connection with God.

She values Quaker theology (but not knowing it).

She focuses on humans as a species with value and uniqueness. She warns of our human dark side, which is currently encouraged through daily doses of reductionist neuroscience, cynicism, cultural pessimism, and the dismissal of Christian theology.

She emphasizes the relation of faith and practice.

Read the whole blog post here.