Grace in Marilynne Robinson’s <i>Gilead</i> and Georges Bernanos’s <i>The Diary of a Country Priest</i>

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Marilynne Robinson's Gilead (2007), a meditative letter written by an aging minister, probes the need for forgiveness and grace. George Bernanos's The Diary of a Country Priest (1936) pictures the suffering and sacrifice of an unnamed young priest in his attempt to open his parishioner's heart to the love of God. Both novelists explore themes such as forgiveness, love, peace, faith, and grace. This paper first discusses the prevalent Christian themes in these novels, and the ways each novelist presents the saving and life-giving power of God's grace in healing and restoring human soul, and then compares their treatment of these issues. The Protestant Robinson's sensibility regarding these religious themes seems very similar to that of the Catholic Bernanos. Indeed, the American writer seems to be considerably influenced by her French predecessor. There was a book many people read at that time, The Diary of a Country Priest. It was by a French writer, Bernanos. I felt a lot of sympathy for the fellow, […] I remember reading the book all nightby the radio till every station went off, and still reading when the daylight came [1].Marilynne Robinson, a contemporary American writer, has published only four novels in a span of more than thirty years and her career is incandescent with Christian sensibility, spiritual wonder, moral wisdom, and understanding of God. Written in the form of a letter with "the qualities of a sermon, a meditation, a diary, and a journal" [2], Robinson's Gilead (2007) chronicles the life of an aging Congregationalist minister, John Ames, who is dying of angina pectoris. After a long life of ministry in a family to which preaching has been a second nature, he spends his last days writing a long letter to his son, intending to show him the ways to live a good life. There had been, in Ames's life, much loneliness, and much sorrow, over watching other men with a family of their own and longing for one of his own. Late in life he has been 'graced' with a family of his own, whom he loves and does not want to lose out to death. Moreover, Ames struggles over an older and deeper conflict within his conscience. Though a Congregationalist minister, he can hardly bring himself to forgive his prodigal godson, "for disgracing his name and the family of his friend, Robert Boughton, a Presbyterian minister" [3]. Later, the novel starts to record Ames' reaction to Jack's return after twenty years. Regarding his late marriage as an unexpected joy, Ames wants to saves his wife and son from the potential harm of Jack Boughton, one "whose childhood was spent escaping from school" [3], and lifting small items of special importance to Ames such as his Greek Old Testament, Ames' reading glasses, and a little photograph. Other harmful things were done, but Ames' virtue prevented him from blaming Jack even in privacy of his thought. Stealing was not the only transgression, though. Earlier in his letter, Ames discloses a "pure meanness"-as it seems to him-of Jack's behavior. Still in college, Jack gets invol...