{"id":1996,"date":"2025-11-25T15:12:47","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T15:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/academics\/tocqueville-program\/?post_type=furman-update&p=1996"},"modified":"2025-11-25T15:19:30","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T15:19:30","slug":"tocqueville-fellows-blog-by-karissa-horn-can-non-ideological-novels-rewrite-politics-what-mark-noll-and-marilynne-robinson-reveal-about-scripture-in-public-life","status":"publish","type":"furman-update","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/academics\/tocqueville-program\/lectures\/tocqueville-fellows-blog-by-karissa-horn-can-non-ideological-novels-rewrite-politics-what-mark-noll-and-marilynne-robinson-reveal-about-scripture-in-public-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Tocqueville Fellows Blog, by Karissa Horn: Can Non-Ideological Novels Rewrite Politics? What Mark Noll and Marilynne Robinson Reveal About Scripture in Public Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Karissa Horn, from Simpsonville, South Carolina, is a senior majoring in Religion and English at Furman University with a minor in Medieval and Early Modern Studies.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Scripture, Politics, and the Problem of Ideological Use<\/b><\/h2>\n

Katelyn Schiess, Mark Noll, and other panelists at the October 7, 2025 lecture on Religion and the American Founding<\/a> expressed strong skepticism about the ways Biblical passages have been used to support\u2014or garnish\u2014political arguments, both during the American Revolution and in recent years. The general consensus among the speakers was that scripture provides a backdrop of common stories and phrases that politicians have cherry-picked, bent, and attached to predetermined conclusions for centuries.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Mark

Tocqueville Center speaker, Mark Noll<\/p><\/div>\n

Marilynne Robinson and the Possibility of \u201cAuthentic Scriptural Politics\u201d<\/b><\/h2>\n

In light of this skepticism, Dr. Noll raised the possibility that \u201ca non-political, even an apolitical, promotion of the scriptures might have a positive effect on public political life without trying to.\u201d As an example, he cited the novels of Marilynne Robinson, especially <\/span>Gilead<\/span><\/i>, which follows a Congregationalist pastor and his family in rural Iowa.<\/span><\/p>\n

Noll\u2019s suggestion hints that novelists may be uniquely positioned to depict\u2014and even create\u2014what I call an \u201cauthentic scriptural politics\u201d that informs readers\u2019 public lives both consciously and unconsciously. \u201cI would think someone who takes <\/span>Gilead<\/span><\/i> seriously is going to do the political thing differently,\u201d Noll states. This rests on two ideas:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. novels with no explicit political content can still shape public political life, and<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. the mores of a society can be strengthened by such works.<\/span>
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"Gilead<\/p>\n

    What Makes a Story \u201cNon-Political\u201d?<\/b><\/h2>\n

    What does it mean for a story to be non-political or apolitical? Stories always depict \u201cpolitics\u201d in the sense that they portray communities, roles, laws, norms, and the presence (or absence) of peace. Any novel that depicts a functioning or dysfunctional community is, in some sense, speaking about politics.<\/span><\/p>\n

    However, there is a crucial distinction between politics\u2014structures of authority\u2014and ideology\u2014a system of ideas held by a party or faction. Many novelists write about communities without referencing recognizable ideological positions. They may also restrict the narrative to local or familial politics without referencing national policy, leading readers to think they are consuming something \u201cnon-political.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

    Gilead<\/span><\/i>, as Noll notes, mentions the American Civil War but otherwise focuses on family and local life; it never names a president. It could not shape public political behavior if it were free of politics altogether, but it does appear free of partisan or ideological content.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Why Non-Ideological Fiction Might Influence Social Mores<\/b><\/h2>\n

    Non-ideological novels might, as Noll suggests, be especially well-positioned to influence social mores. A major issue with the political use of scripture\u2014identified by both Noll and Schiess\u2014is that politicians often employ Biblical texts to bolster conclusions they already hold, even when the context of the passage does not support those conclusions.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Novelists are not immune to this temptation. Yet a non-ideological novel is free to use scripture as a starting point for imagining the mores and structures of authority in a fictional community. Novelists face none of the constraints of party lines, approval ratings, or electoral pressure. They can depict authentic scriptural politics using careful research and interpretation, unburdened by pragmatism.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"

    Tocqueville Center speaker, Kaitlyn Scheiss<\/p><\/div>\n

    Fiction, Moral Worlds, and the Reader\u2019s Imagination<\/b><\/h2>\n

    The project of fiction is, broadly speaking, to illuminate the human experience. Children\u2019s fairytales do this by showing the moral weight of particular behaviors\u2014good behaviors are rewarded, bad behaviors are punished\u2014thus establishing a moral world with rules. More \u201csophisticated\u201d stories still do this, even if the rules are complex, ambiguous, or arbitrary.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Anecdotally, stories cause readers to <\/span>feel<\/span><\/i> what it’s like to live under a set of moral assumptions. Literature says, <\/span>this is your life<\/span><\/i>, and for the duration of the reading experience, it is. Readers are often motivated to continue living in a world whose moral logic they find compelling. This is even easier when the moral world is internally consistent and grounded in accessible realities\u2014such as scripture.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The Promise and Limits of Scriptural Politics in Fiction<\/b><\/h2>\n

    In conclusion, non-ideological novels offer an approachable vehicle for mores that foster authentic scriptural politics, especially at the local or communal level. Yet a novelist\u2019s freedom from pragmatic constraints is both an advantage and a limitation. However coherent such politics may appear on the page, implementing them in real life remains a serious, even debilitating, challenge.<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Karissa Horn, from Simpsonville, South Carolina, is a senior majoring in Religion and English at Furman University with a minor in Medieval and Early Modern Studies.\u00a0 Scripture, Politics, and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1997,"template":"","update-categories":[8],"class_list":["post-1996","furman-update","type-furman-update","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","furman-update-category-student-blogs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/academics\/tocqueville-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lectures\/1996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/academics\/tocqueville-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lectures"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/academics\/tocqueville-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/furman-update"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/academics\/tocqueville-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lectures\/1996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2002,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/academics\/tocqueville-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lectures\/1996\/revisions\/2002"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/academics\/tocqueville-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/academics\/tocqueville-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"furman-update-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/academics\/tocqueville-program\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/update-categories?post=1996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}