Gilead

by

Marilynne Robinson

Gilead: Pages 166-173 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
John slept poorly last night. When he got up, he made an effort to shave carefully and dress neatly, wanting to look more like a “gentleman” than a “codger.” Then he walked to church to wait for Jack Boughton and fell asleep in a pew. Before he fell asleep, he’d been praying for wisdom in dealing with Jack, and he figures he must have reached a sense of resolution on the matter, or he wouldn’t have fallen asleep. Jack, who’s also nicely dressed, apologizes and sits down to give John time to pull himself together. They chat about the congregation’s history, and Jack remarks that it’s “an enviable thing” to inherit an identity from one’s father.
Despite John’s efforts to look like a respectable, put-together minister, he immediately does something that makes him look like a “codger” (an elderly, old-fashioned man) after all by falling asleep. Given that John’s age is a sensitive matter for him, especially when Jack is around, being discovered asleep in a pew doesn’t get their conversation off to a promising start.
Themes
Christian Faith, Mystery, and Ministry Theme Icon
Estrangement and Reconciliation Theme Icon
John has a bad habit: he forms an opinion of a conversation early, and at this point, his hopes aren’t very high. He’s always been a little touchy about this, and he tells Jack that regardless of who his father had been, he assumes that God still would have called him to his vocation. Jack says that he always seems to cause offense without meaning to, and that he wishes he could have been like his own father. When John says that Boughton has been an example to all of them, Jack looks grieved and frustrated. He says he’d hoped to speak more directly and starts to go, but John encourages him to sit down; they’ll try again.
John has always given an impression of being a sensitive listener, but where Jack is concerned, listening is much more of a struggle. Though carrying on his family’s legacy is important to John, he also feels strongly about having been called to his vocation as an individual. But it seems his sensitivity about this keeps him from understanding that Jack was really talking about his relationship with his own father, Boughton. John’s prejudice about Jack—and his assumption that Jack intended offense—get the conversation off on a shaky footing.
Themes
Christian Faith, Mystery, and Ministry Theme Icon
Estrangement and Reconciliation Theme Icon
They sit quietly together for a while until Jack says that when he was a little boy, he thought God lived in the attic and paid for their groceries. That was the last time he was capable of religious conviction. He couldn’t believe anything his father preached, and he still doesn’t. And there’s another thing—he lies a lot, because people believe him, and telling the truth tends to go badly for him. By telling the truth now, he implies, he’s taking a big risk.
Jack admits that he’s never truly believed in God and doesn’t feel capable of doing so—a big confession for a minister’s son, although it doesn’t seem he’s hostile to his father’s faith the way other skeptics, like John’s brother Edward, have been.
Themes
Christian Faith, Mystery, and Ministry Theme Icon
Memory, Vision, and Conviction Theme Icon
Estrangement and Reconciliation Theme Icon
John asks Jack what he wants to tell him. Jack says that earlier, he’d asked John a question. John admits that’s true. He just doesn’t know how to answer it. Jack says it does not make sense to him that there is “a great gulf fixed” between him and John, across which they can’t communicate. John isn’t sure what Jack is asking—does he want to be persuaded that Christianity is true? Jack isn’t sure.
Jack is referring to the conversation on Boughton’s porch when he asked John if he believes a person can change. The phrase “a great gulf fixed” is a reference to a story Jesus tells in Luke 16 which teaches that there’s an impassable boundary between heaven and hell. Jack just means that he doesn’t think it should be so impossible for the two of them to have a straightforward conversation, even though their beliefs are different.
Themes
Christian Faith, Mystery, and Ministry Theme Icon
Memory, Vision, and Conviction Theme Icon
Estrangement and Reconciliation Theme Icon
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Jack remarks that a man he met in Tennessee had heard of Gilead and of John’s grandfather. He’d also heard that in the Civil War, there was a regiment of Black soldiers. He hadn’t realized that so many Black people ever lived in Iowa. John says it’s true—many of them came from Missouri before the war began. Jack recalls that there used to be more Black families in Gilead, but that they’ve all moved away.
It’s not really clear what Jack is getting at with these seemingly out-of-the-blue remarks about Iowa’s Black history, but they’re worth keeping in mind as Jack’s story continues to unfold.
Themes
Memory, Vision, and Conviction Theme Icon
Shifting to the sly, angry tone that John has never been able to stand, Jack brings up Karl Barth, whom he knows John admires. He points out that Barth doesn’t respect American religion very much. He asks John why American Christianity “seems to wait for the real thinking to be done elsewhere.” John starts to feel as if he is losing this conversation. He said that it’s presumptuous for anyone to judge the authenticity of anyone else’s religion. Suddenly he realizes he is crying, and Jack apologizes, contrite. After he leaves, John knows he has to write Jack a letter, but he has no idea what to say.
Jack abruptly changes the subject and tone, becoming more critical of John’s faith and, implicitly, of John himself. This seems to wound John deeply, although it isn’t clear exactly what’s triggered his tears. At the very least, he’s grieving the fact that he and Jack, his namesake, can’t seem to communicate with each other, especially about the subjects that mean the most to John.
Themes
Christian Faith, Mystery, and Ministry Theme Icon
Memory, Vision, and Conviction Theme Icon
Estrangement and Reconciliation Theme Icon