The Parable of the Old Man and the Young

I've been wanting to say a word about Marilynne Robinson's Gilead, but I've been waiting until I finish Home, its companion piece and mirror. Meanwhile, there's a passage in Gilead that stuck in my mind and is just too good not to quote:

I began my remarks by pointing out the similarity between the stories of Hagar and Ishmael sent off into the wilderness and Abraham going off with Isaac to sacrifice him, as he believes. My point was that Abraham is in effect called upon to sacrifice both his sons, and that the Lord in both instances sends angels to intervene at the critical moment to save the child ... because any father, particularly an old father, must finally give his children up to the wilderness and trust to the providence of God. It seems almost a cruelty for one generation to beget another when parents can secure so little for their children, so little safety, even in the best of circumstances. Great faith is required to give the child up, trusting God to honor the parents' love for him by assuring that there will indeed be angels in that wilderness.

--Marilynne Robinson, Gilead 128-9 (2004)

Whatever you say about her powers as a novelist, I think you have to admit that she's an elegant theologian.