Mary Gordon is the author of six novels and a collection of short stories. She teaches at Barnard College and lives in New York City. Gordon grew up as a Catholic and has trouble calling herself "a person of faith." It is far easier for her to see herself as "a person of hopeful faith. Hope is the vector that pulls me toward the irresistible incomprehensible." Gordon certainly does not identify with the certainty of Christian Fundamentalists whose literal reading of the Bible has made the text "an idol." On the other hand, she can't align herself with the "bowdlerizers" of the Bible like Thomas Jefferson who eliminated anything he didn't like or appeared too esoteric to him. With these thoughts in mind, the author sets out to interpret the Gospels with excerpts from the New Testament and her own commentary — often spiced up by autobiographical snippets.
Gordon begins with the Parable of the Prodigal Son and its messages about grace and mercy, and she ends with an examination of the Resurrection. Along the way, she presents insights into Jesus' preferential option for the poor, the woman who washes Jesus' feet with her tears and dries them with her hair, the lure of the luminous, the meaning of cursing the fig tree, the moral qualities extolled in the Beatitudes, the problem of miracles, Jesus' detachment from familial ties, loving our neighbors, and the seven last words.
As a gifted writer, Gordon brings to these commentaries a freshness and sophistication that is refreshing and edifying.
