In the midst of reading 100% non-fiction in 2017, I decided to read Marilynne Robinson’s the Death of Adam after Sam Harris’s Letter to a Christian Nation. The idea was simple enough; read a book that supposes there is no place for religion in the modern world and then read a book that supposes there is! This is constantly a stance I wobble back and forth on and I was seeking opposing views. The Death of Adam was a foolish book choice for this purpose, but on the other hand, I don’t believe I’ve read anything that has inspired me quite like it has.
The temptation here is to treat “inspire” as a platitude, as though the Death of Adam made me feel good or reaffirmed beliefs I’d been mulling over. While it did those things, I’m more interested in taking action. As a set of essays self-proclaimed to take on all of modern thought, Robinson has taken to processing the topic as a way of challenging her readers to do the same. And her case for doing so is absolutely air tight.
We should be considering modern thought at all times. Any set of beliefs, progressive or orthodox, liberal or conservative, are rooted in history. Deriving the genealogy of these ideas is important. In Robinson’s first essay she discusses the influence that Darwinism has had on our economics, politics, and psychology. The effects have ranged from genocide to laissez-faire capitalism, all predicated on the immutability of evolution - the truth of which is very different than Darwinism. The essay is wildly educational, brilliantly written, and forces readers to think about the sorts of truths humanity has tried to pull moral codes from. Every essay takes on the subject of influence and history in ways that make one want to question the origin of everything.
I’m also very intrigued that Robinson refuses to take any opinion second hand. She goes right to the primary source to draw her own conclusions. There is no doubt that the immense amount of work this requires is masked by her effortless and gorgeous writing style. When discussing the merits of John Calvin, or Charles Darwin, or Marx, or Jefferson, or Freud, or anyone for that matter, Robinson does so with the authority of having read and studied their actual works. Her only citation of historians and academics comes as rebuke or demonstration of modern thinking gone astray. To the modern reader, no matter how well-read, one has to come to the realization that there are so many primary works, the worth of which we’ve only been assuming. I’ve never felt so pressed to read more.
The last bit of inspiration comes entirely from Robinson’s final essay titled the Tyranny of Petty Coercion (great title). Some of the most prolific and powerful writing I’ve ever encountered, Robinson dwells on the point that we’ve allowed our ideas to be censored because they are thought to have fallen out of fashion or to be uncool, dated, “delusional”, something it is cool to show irreverence toward. In it, she admits to being a liberal and a Christian, if I say she does so boldly do not take it to be melodramatic. You’re smart and passionate enough to believe the things you do, collective modern thought has nothing to lose and everything to gain from your categorical declaration of belief. Don’t be afraid to admit you’re a socialist because it will offend your girlfriend’s parents, or say you’re an atheist because it will break your mother's heart, or that you’re a liberal because your boss is a hot blooded conservative, or any of the opposite because the opposite is true! All we can do is go around inspiring each other. Robinson’s book is a necessary first step.
