Book explores the idea that beauty is everywhere, if we are willing to look for it

Tony Ryma speaks with Mark S.M. Scott about his book, The Beauty of Souls: Aesthetic Encounters with Marilynne Robinson.

A former Sudbury university professor has written a new book about a Pulitzer Prize-winning author.

U.S college professor Mark Scott digs deeper into the works of an American author in ‘The Beauty of Souls: Aesthetic Encounters with Marilynne Robinson.’

“It started back at Harvard University when I was a teaching assistant in an English course and the professor recommended her novels to me,” Scott said in a recent interview with CTV News.

“I had never read her work or knew of her. So, I started with ‘Gilead,’ the book for which she won the Pulitzer and started reading all her work.”

Scott is now a professor in the department of Religious Studies and Theology at Stonehill College in Easton, Mass., south of Boston. He said he was moved and inspired by Robinson’s work.

“In today’s world, there are a lot of distractions and what is happening in the world,” he said.

“We are not spending enough time with ourselves and introspection. And that is one of the remarkable things about her novels. They spiritually activate, reawaken and sensitize her readers to really look inward.”

Sense of wonder

Scott said Robinson gives the readers a sense that we should slow down and look at the world with a sense of wonder.

“One of her core writings is that beauty is ubiquitous,” he said.

“Beauty is everywhere and it waits for our notice and our discovery.”

Beauty is a major theme in Robinson’s novels, and she reinforces the fact that there is beauty in relationships.

“There is beauty in the brokenness of life,” Scott said.

“It is about appreciating the various forms of beauty that we encounter day-to-day.”

The concept of a soul, Scott said, influences the way Robinson writes about human connection, love or loss.

“The soul is about talking about the depth dimension of the human experience, the surplus of being,” he said.

“It is … about the dimensions of self, beyond the material that is hard to articulate. They are hidden and, at least for Robinson, are mysteries that we cannot exhaust.”

Scott said he believes that souls evolve and grow -- or devolve -- as we create new experiences in our lives. He said the spiritual life is a journey.