Prodigal Ministers in Fiction

Abstract

In three novels focused on the lives of ordained ministers, J. G. Lockhart’s Adam Blair, James Robertson’s The Testament of Gideon Mack, and Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead, the meaning of home and the movement from being lost to being found are key themes shared with the parable of the Prodigal Son. In Adam Blair, the paradigm informs the movement towards being found; in Gilead, the minister comes home to himself, to others, and to God; in Gideon Mack, it is the bleakness of being lost which the parable brings into sharp relief. The connection between the parable and this unusual category of literary figures is particularly strong and illuminates the theological context out of which each is drawn.