New essays on theological, political, and contemporary themes, by the Pulitzer Prize winnerMarilynne Robinson has plumbed the human spirit in her renowned novels, including Lila, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Gilead, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In this new essay collection she trains her incisive mind on our modern political climate and the mysteries of faith. Whether she is investigating how the work of great thinkers about America like Emerson and Tocqueville inform our political consciousness or discussing the way that beauty informs and disciplines daily life, Robinson's peerless prose and boundless humanity are on full display. What Are We Doing Here? is a call for Americans to continue the tradition of those great thinkers and to remake American political and cultural life as "deeply impressed by obligation [and as] a great theater of heroic generosity, which, despite all, is sometimes palpable still."

Preface* What Is Freedom of Conscience?* What Are We Doing Here?* Theology for this Moment* The Sacred, the Human* The Divine* The American Scholar Now* Grace and Beauty* A Proof, a Test, an Instruction* The Beautiful Changes* Our Public Conversation: How America Talks About Itself* Mind, Conscience, Soul* Considering the Theological Virtues: Faith, Hope, and Love* Integrity and the Modern Intellectual Tradition* Old Souls, New World* Slander