Participation Type
Paper
Presentation #1 Title
“Hit’s the fullness of time”: An Approach to Denise Giardina’s Kingdom Theology
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
“Hit’s the fullness of time”: An Approach to Denise Giardina’s Kingdom Theology
At the conclusion of one of the most significant and moving scenes in Denise Giardina’s Storming Heaven, protagonist Rondal Lloyd, a United Mine Workers field agent, ponders why his years of organizing are at last bearing fruit. The minister whose pulpit he has borrowed for the evening’s recruitment speech offers this apparently simple answer: “Hit’s the fullness of time.” And Rondal reflects, “I loved that phrase. . . for I sensed I was living in it, right then. Nothing afterward would be so important. . . .” (181).
This once-weighty Biblical expression, “the fullness of time,” has passed into common usage and may now be understood in various ways; just how any particular reader understands it likely depends upon her religious background or lack thereof. For most it may mean only, “If you wait long enough, something will happen”—and that’s one possible understanding. However, given the sophistication and acuity of Giardina’s other theological motifs in the novel, a closer examination of the phrase seems warranted.
My paper will sketch out some of the possible meanings, then demonstrate how, when rightly understood, "the fullness of time" can become one key to entering a fuller understanding of Giardina’s theology: in particular, her socially relevant eschatology. Not only may this argument throw further light on Storming Heaven, but it may have the potential to help readers better understand her more recent, less well-received novels.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Bill Jolliff, a native of Magnetic Springs, Ohio, is professor of English at George Fox University in Oregon. He has published several essays on Appalachian fiction and poetry; the most recent collection of his original poems, Twisted Shapes of LIght (2015), was published in the Poiema Poetry Series of Cascade Press.
“Hit’s the fullness of time”: An Approach to Denise Giardina’s Kingdom Theology
“Hit’s the fullness of time”: An Approach to Denise Giardina’s Kingdom Theology
At the conclusion of one of the most significant and moving scenes in Denise Giardina’s Storming Heaven, protagonist Rondal Lloyd, a United Mine Workers field agent, ponders why his years of organizing are at last bearing fruit. The minister whose pulpit he has borrowed for the evening’s recruitment speech offers this apparently simple answer: “Hit’s the fullness of time.” And Rondal reflects, “I loved that phrase. . . for I sensed I was living in it, right then. Nothing afterward would be so important. . . .” (181).
This once-weighty Biblical expression, “the fullness of time,” has passed into common usage and may now be understood in various ways; just how any particular reader understands it likely depends upon her religious background or lack thereof. For most it may mean only, “If you wait long enough, something will happen”—and that’s one possible understanding. However, given the sophistication and acuity of Giardina’s other theological motifs in the novel, a closer examination of the phrase seems warranted.
My paper will sketch out some of the possible meanings, then demonstrate how, when rightly understood, "the fullness of time" can become one key to entering a fuller understanding of Giardina’s theology: in particular, her socially relevant eschatology. Not only may this argument throw further light on Storming Heaven, but it may have the potential to help readers better understand her more recent, less well-received novels.
