This article explores Marilynne Robinson’s attempt to reconcile the doctrine of predestination with a commitment to human agency by reading her novels Gilead, Home, Lila, and Jack alongside their intertextual companion, John Calvin. I argue that, rather than attempting to penetrate the enigma of predestination and agency through theological treatises, Robinson embodies the tension between them in fiction. Rather than defining a solution to the problem, she meaningfully charts the lived experience of it. Indeed, in the Gilead novels the experience of agency is itself agency within a universe defined by God’s omnipotence. At the same time, characters’ freedom to act otherwise than habit or impulse would dictate depends on right perception. Robinson’s unique contribution to an American literary and theological legacy is to animate these tensions as only fiction can. Her novels offer a theological vista that cannot be separated from their fictional content, and so things that seem like tautologies grow profound through narration.

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“自由行动”：玛丽莲·罗宾逊的基列小说中的代理与宿命

本文探讨玛丽莲·罗宾逊通过阅读她的小说《基列》、《霍姆》、《莉拉》和《杰克》以及他们的互文伙伴约翰·卡尔文，试图调和预定学说与对人类能动性的承诺。我认为，罗宾逊并没有试图通过神学论文来破解预定和代理的谜团，而是在小说中体现了它们之间的张力。她没有定义问题的解决方案，而是有意义地描绘了它的生活经验。事实上，在基列小说中，代理的经验本身就是在上帝全能所定义的宇宙中的代理。同时，人物的行为自由，而不是习惯或冲动所决定的，取决于正确的感知。罗宾逊对美国文学和神学遗产的独特贡献是让这些紧张关系像小说一样活跃起来。她的小说提供了一种与小说内容分不开的神学视野，因此看似重言式的事物通过叙述变得深刻。