Reading Genesis was my first exposure to Marilynne Robinson’s nonfiction, and I was pleased to find the same rich vocabulary and vivid writing I’ve enjoyed in her fiction. Having read through Genesis myself innumerable times over the years, I’m convinced that no one reads Genesis quite like Marilyn Robinson, and I enjoyed her unique observations.

The themes that occur in Genesis reappear throughout the entire narrative arc of scripture, and they are conveyed through story—a series of stories featuring a family who experiences all the changes, successes and failures, relational tensions and resolution that characterize family life. Given the shenanigans and sometimes inexplicable actions of the major players, it’s easy to lose sight of the truth that Genesis is primarily a book about God, but Robinson never does.

With that in mind, Genesis becomes a portal for the enjoyment of God, who clearly shares a reciprocal enjoyment of all his creation—including his unruly humans. I enjoyed the reminder that God loves people much more than we give him credit for as evidenced by his great constancy in honoring his word and acting in alignment with his revealed character and attributes.

Forgiveness is one of the major themes of Genesis that I had somehow missed over the years. From God’s forgiveness and protection of Cain and his parents all the way to Joseph’s forgiveness of his conniving brothers, Genesis upends any erroneous tendencies to bifurcate the actions of “Old Testament God” from what’s revealed in the New Testament.

Reading Genesis could equally well have been titled Enjoying Genesis, for Robinson’s intent is clearly not to quibble about textual details or rehash the same old arguments. Redemptive history is always selective, and the details Moses chose to write into his historical account are intended to reveal the grace of God, for he does indeed keep his promises, even when the journey from promise to fulfillment seems long.

Many thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book to facilitate my review, which is, of course, offered freely and with honesty.

This thoughtful, insightful book by Marilynne Robinson, Reading Genesis, is both deep and accessible. It's a striking interpretation of the first book in the Bible and may not be for every reader, but it's profound and filled with beautiful, poetic language. I recommend it.

I really appreciated reading and listening to "Reading Genesis". I liked the literary critique of the Bible and the insight into its interpretation.

The gifted writer Marilynn Robinson is a national treasure. Having enjoyed several of her novels, she now turns her astute attention to the Book of Genesis, mining it for its treasures with fresh insights, keen observations, and surprising approaches. It’s a brilliant take on one of the world’s most influential texts. And it will stay with me for a long time. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for making the digital arc available.

Reading Genesis is a fascinating account of the story of Genesis. We get to read Genesis with Marilynne Robinson. She points out how unique the stories of Genesis are to the rest of ancient myths. She also examines providence as many of these stories don't play out like the reader thinks they would. It is an interesting and unique reading of the book of Genesis.

Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for the advance copy.

I have never read a book on Genesis like this before. Marilynne Robinson is a master at her craft. She is more than just a master fiction writer which can be seen in this work. The impression I get when sitting with 'Reading Genesis" is that a mature wordsmith has sat with Genesis for a long time and had deeply penetrating insights into God's purpose for gifting us the book of Genesis.

Marilynne Robinson walks us through the whole book of Genesis summarizing and highlighting significant takeaways we might miss studying Genesis alone. It would be nice if this became the first entry in a series. The new or adolescent believer would be served well getting this book.

This book has forever changed the way I'll read Genesis. I took many, many notes on Robinson's ideas and there is too much to go into here, so I'll just mention two of her major themes.
First, I guess Robinson is tired of hearing intellectuals dismiss Genesis as nothing more than a rehash of the myths of the Hebrews' neighboring civilizations. So, she focuses on the differences and what those tells us about God. OK - the Epic of Gilgamesh also has a flood story, but how is the Bible's account different? What does it tell us about God's concern for humans and the disasters we face? Other stories receive a similar treatment.
Then, Robinson really tackles the idea of the God of the Hebrew Bible being vengeful. She shows how the Genesis stories show over and over that God is forgiving and how beautiful it is when humans forgive each other. God also fails to punish and curse humans in many situations where it would seem He would be completely justified in doing so.
I've read and loved Marilynne Robinson's novels but I have to say this was even better.

This is another amazing book by Marilynne Robinson. It took me a while to get through, simply because I wanted to take my time with it and make many notations and highlights to come back to. It is thoughtful and somewhat academic, while remaining accessible readers with differing familiarity and experiences with theology. It presents Genesis as a singular, hopeful and ultimately human story, told through the beautiful and insightful prose that Robinson is known for..

Reading Genesis is a short but mighty commentary on the stories in the Biblical book, by the well-known and beloved Pulitzer-Prize-winning author, Marilynne Robinson.

Robinson begins by comparing the multiple Babylonian gods, who were capricious and duplicitous in their dealings with mankind, with the Hebrew God, who shows mercy and grace and forgiveness and kindness and compassion in regards to his Creation. She acknowledges that Biblical writers most likely borrowed from these earlier Babylonian sources and stories, but she is able to articulate and maintain her own beliefs while allowing for this appropriation.

Robinson's perceptive conclusions are that the Hebrew deity is mysteriously able to maintain a covenant and family relationship with its Creation, whether or not the characters in Genesis are seen as completely honorable or not. This Hebrew God is somehow capable of allowing mankind to act with free will outside of the "law" and yet still honor agreements and give blessings that extend into the future. Perhaps the most impactful ideas for me were her thoughts regarding history and how this God uses any human decisions, good or bad, to bring about the continuation of his covenant in ways that then become what we call history.

The audience for these quite erudite musings will be those who already have some familiarity with the Bible and/or theology. I consider myself fairly familiar with Biblical theology, but I still struggled at times to fully understand Robinson's ideas.

I have not read Robinson's non-fiction before, although I do own a collection of her essays. I will now be moving that book up to the forefront of my reading. I highly recommend Reading Genesis to those who are interested in religion and Biblical studies, or to those who simply enjoy reading Marilynne Robinson.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, for early access to a digital copy in return for an honest review.

This feels a bit like an instance of "everybody loved it but me," but, as far as I'm concerned, Marilynne Robinson's Reading Genesis was a total miss. I found it pretentious and dismissive of scholarship in ways that left me with a strong sense of confirmation bias. So, if you already align ideologically with Robinson's erudite Calvinism, you will no doubt feel smug and intelligent when you read this book. If that's you, then great. Honestly, I'd be more than pleased to see the right readers get connected to this book. If you're a critical reader who has picked up this title as part of an investigation of scripture, you might be disappointed. You might even end up outraged. Reading Genesis essentially preaches to the choir, begins with a conclusion, and attempts to fortify deeply held beliefs with sophisticated prose rather than evidence. What's more, it never really says anything new, instead re-presenting close readings and established interpretations with needlessly elevated vocabulary.

In a nutshell: this book was the wrong book for me, but I can see why it might be the right book for others.

Robinson is like the smartest Sunday School teacher you’ll ever have, and her reading of Genesis is so wise, kind, compassionate, and all-encompassing. My big quibble is that we have got to have introductions in these kinds of nonfiction texts. We need theses and statements of intent. We need guiding principles that elucidate understanding.

I'm not religious but I have an interest in theology. This book is a great primer for someone like myself who isn't intimately familiar with Genesis. I also suspect this would be rewarding for readers who are more familiar than I am but looking for some kind of explication. The digital advance copy that I read did not include the actual biblical text alongside Robinson's commentary, which made following the 'plotline' (for lack of a better word) sometimes confusing, because she doesn't seem to always move linearly(?). FSG's website claims the book will include the full King James version of Genesis, so I imagine readers of physical copies will have an easier time with this than I did. The biggest takeaways for me were Robinson's insistence on the point that through Genesis, vengeance, when expected, is not taken, and her note that these stories are unusually focused on the lives and follies of individual humans (the text's inclusion of so many domestic squabbles, and so many terrible decisions on the part of its ostensible heroes, is, as Robinson says, remarkable). A really enjoyable read.

In Genesis the recurring sin is grievous harm to one’s brother.
Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson

I have loved Marilynne Robinson’s novels and have read Gilead three times (twice for book clubs). When my husband was in seminary–fifty years ago–I audited a half dozen classes in theology and Biblical studies. I thought I was up to tackling Reading Genesis.

I remember co-teaching a Sunday evening bible study for junior high teens. I remember my husband explaining that the Bible is full of imperfect people who do bad things but are used by God for the good. And I found this message in Robinson’s exploration.

Robinson argues that the Judeo-Christian tradition was remarkably different from the Babylonian and Egyptian. And she shows that the messages of the stories in Genesis shows a providential history of mercy instead of justice, of using the bad for the good, and demonstrating that the humanity is failable and yet God can use them for righteousness. The covenant, she states, “is not contingent upon human virtue,” for God can work through fallible beings. Thank goodness, because the people in Genesis are certainly not virtuous.

Robinson calls it the “economics of grace,” God forgiving our debts. Even when we don’t forgive our debtors, although it is what we are called to do, along with doing justice and loving mercy.

This is not an easy book to read. Its message is not for everyone. Robinson prefers the term providential history to predetermination but her Calvinist faith is central to her exploration. It is a book that needs studying and discussion to fully integrate its message.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.

Thank you to Net Galley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publishing for an early copy of Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson

Historian, philosopher, theologian Marilynne Robinson has aligned her considerable efforts into understanding more fully the complexity and beauty of Genesis, the First Book of the Old Testament. This work needs to be approached slowly to allow for the context, the action and the consequences of her many vignettes to be more fully comprehended. Sometimes a dictionary is helpful (antinomianism, condigm), but the overall theme of her latest writing is the ever-present loyalty of God toward humankind even when it is not deserved.

The format seems to be a lengthy essay without chapters or subtitles. This is a deliberate act on Robinson's part as it weaves the differing stories into a unified oneness so that from Adam to Joseph the workings of a compassionate God are revealed. However, the God/human relationship is not an easy one---Abraham was tested; Jacob was tested; Joseph was tested. The women of Genesis have their troubles and ills as well---barrenness, unfaithfulness and exile.

At times Robinson relates Genesis to a more modern time or present-day application, none more cruel than slaveholders of America's southern states using Noah's son, Ham, as justification for slavery. She also explains the convergence and divergence of differing creation stories such as the Babylonian interpretations.

Reading Genesis works best when read in small segments so that there is time to contemplate and appreciate Marilynne Robinson's incredible writing that will lead to new understandings of the Book of Genesis.

Robinson clearly provides the thesis that, while some of the Genesis stories parallel other ancient texts, the motifs in the stories show a clear difference, particularly with the Babylonian narratives. Genesis, and the rest of the Hebrew and Greek Judeo-Christian scriptures, describe a God who loves, protects and serves his people, his creations. They were not “born” out of a divine contest or war with other gods but of his free will and therefore an object of his affection. His disappointment is expressed when they don’t treat each other well, when they don’t live up to his standards. The other main difference is how people are viewed between the other mythologies and the Hebrew text. They are viewed as servants and objects of the gods’ capriciousness. Moses’ text reveals that people are created and deemed ‘good’ and therefore worthy. But this is not a humanistic reading of the scripture; the author points out that our understanding and confusion of the dynamics of these stories is because we forget the foundation laid in the Creation story(ies) that allows for God to show mercy and love, even to Cain who killed his own brother. [The author shares that a non-Western student who exclaimed, “What god would not punish a person who killed his brother?”]

Since these texts were written post-exodus from Egypt, it’s interesting that most of the comparison was not to Egyptian creation myths or divine stories. Certainly Abram/Abraham’s experience with YHWH was different from his Babylonian counterparts, but Moses (and any other post-Exodus scribes) would have been more familiar with the Egyptian mythologies, unless we think Moses became indoctrinated in the Canaanite lore while living in Midian. So I believe this question is unanswered by this volume, yet this book will certainly provide fodder for many, many discussions about what the Genesis stories mean to a person’s faith and their understanding of who YHWH’s character and our nature in relationship to him.

Rarely has theological prose been as beautifully poetic and lyrical as in Marilynne Robinson's Reading Genesis. Robinson's mastery of the English language, when applied to theological inquiry, makes for a seriously beautiful and deeply enjoyable read. Even if one were to disagree with some of her conclusions, as many conservative evangelicals likely will, Robinson's commitment to awe, allowing and embracing the mystery of a God that can be known and yet remains beyond mankind's understanding and grasp, and to a conviction that there is a goodness found in Him that is better than we think, surpassing human understanding and, frequently, disturbing our sense of justice, makes Reading Genesis worthwhile, at times convicting, and essential.

Marilynne Robinson's Reading Genesis is a brilliant, insightful book. The writing is so good, I lingered over passages. As soon as I finished it, I started reading it again, finding more to ponder. For example, Robinson compares the Babylonian creation and flood myths with the similar Biblical stories, identifying crucial differences in the character, purpose, and efficacy of the Biblical god and humans. She focuses on historical context, on meaning and metaphysics, on realities that aren't necessarily literal. Her reflections on Abraham, Issac, and Jacob have added depth and newness to these familiar stories.

The one thing the book lacks (the reason I've rated it 4 instead of 5) is a tightly developed thematic structure. It's an extended, occasionally discursive, essay. that lacks the focus and the pauses for reflection that chapter divisions would give it.

I normally devour any book by Marilynne Robinson and since I actively read the Bible, I thought this would be a good companion book. I did find this interesting and Robinson’s in depth analysis of the book of Genesis brings up points that I haven’t considered. I would have liked some breaks in the material, though, as this read like a very long essay. I found it very hard to just pick back up as there are no natural stopping points. This is a small quibble, though, as I really appreciated this book.

Marilynne Robinson's non-fiction is not nearly of the same standard as her fiction, but she is our greatest living novelist, so this is understandable. Reading Genesis is, as one might expect, impressive, exciting, and deeply worthwhile. I will return to it in the future, likely often.

This is an excellent meditation on the foundational stories of Genesis. It is gentle and thoughtful, unapologetically Christian yet wholly persuasive to a nonbeliever. Robinson is not interested in a narrowly minded scholarly dissection of Scripture in (established) source-critical terms; what she cares about is stories—so familiar that we no longer pause over what they mean, especially when it comes to God’s relationship with humankind. One highlight among many for me was her incisive analysis of the stories, such as the Flood, that have long been viewed by scholars as adaptations of the Babylonian or other Near Eastern sources (e.g., Gilgamesh). Robinson does not dispute the obvious parallels, but she explains, with authority and persuasion, that the Hebrew stories arrived at fundamentally different conclusions, from the moral, theological, and philosophical points of view.

— thanks to Farrar, Strauss and Giroux for an ARC via NetGalley