The Spiritual Odyssey Of Belief

Marilynne Robinson，contemporary American woman writer and author ofGilead，has published three novels so far. Though she is not prolific, each one of herworks could be regarded as an achievement. As a Christian, she creates her worksrooted in her religious belief. Each novel of hers shows religious themes and views.The style of her works reflects her thinking about religious belief instead of didacticwriting.Gilead (2004) depicts the life changes of the family whose three generations areall clergymen from the Civil War to the year1956by using first-person narration ofAmes. The novel describes the changing attitudes and behaviors of clergymen and thechanges of church situation, showing the religious changes over the time.The thesis is intended to interpret the novel in the context of religioussecularization by analyzing its text in detail against the times reflected in the novel,namely the period dating from the Civil War to year1956. The thesis will discuss thesecularized process of religion by analyzing the conflicts between religious belief andreality in the life of religious people, the changing significance of holy affairs like thechurch and divine duty, and the failure of seeking for the religious belief of majorcharacters in order to reveal the desire and pursuit for the belief with humane care inthe environment where religion is increasingly secularized.