Mary Doria Russell, The Sparrow

Mary Doria Russell, The Sparrow 

http://literati.net/Russell/ 

http://users.adelphia.net/~druss44121/abouttheauthor.htm


Puerto Rico and surrounding Caribbean 

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/loc-car.htm


http://www.lonelyplanet.com/mapshells/caribbean/puerto_rico/puerto_rico.htm


Arecibo 305 meter Radio Telescope 

http://www.naic.edu/bigtable.htm


Alpha Centauri, viewed from Arecibo, PR, 26 Apr 2004


http://www.lonelyplanet.com/mapshells/europe/italy/italy.htm


From: "Ann Pederson" 

Subject: questions for Monday night 

Think about the following few questions for Monday night: 

With which character did you most identify and why? 

What do you know about Russell’s religious background? 

How does this relate to her writing? 

Would you want to travel to another planet? 

For Christian theology, does discovering life on another 

planet threaten or enhance the message of the gospel?


Particularly for musicians in the class -- 

The Jesuit mission was drawn to Rakhat initially by the 

music heard at Arecibo. 

If The Sparrow came with a CD, what might the music 

sound like? 

P. 191 -- Father Alan Pace, the first to die on Rakhat, said at 

one point, “Music may very well afford us our only means 

of communication.” (p. 151) If Alan had lived longer, might 

the Jesuit mission have turned out differently? Can you 

imagine forming a musical group across species boundaries?


Powers of Ten 

The Films of Charles & Ray Eames 

http://www.powersof10.com/powers/power/3.html


Our Cosmic Neighborhood 

Augustana Academy for Seniors 

Sept 2003 

http://www.augie.edu/pub/values/AAS0304_AV.html


Colossians 1:15-20 -- The Cosmic Christ 

1:15He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all 

creation; 

1:16for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, 

visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or 

principalities or authorities--all things were created through him 

and for him. 

1:17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 

1:18He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the 

first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 

1:19For in him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell, 

1:20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on 

earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. 

http://biblestudytools.net/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?word=Col+1%3A15-20%A7ion=0&version=rsv&new=1&oq=Col1%3A15-20


Joseph Sittler, Lutheran theologian (1904-1987) delivered 

one of the main addresses at the Third Assembly, World 

Council of Churches (WCC), New Delhi, India, on 

November 21, 1961. 

Joseph A. Sittler, "Called to Unity," The Ecumenical Review, 14 

(January 1962): 177-87. 

This address is summarized by Lukas Vischer -- 

Sittler stated: "In propositional form it is simply this: a doctrine of 

redemption is meaningful only when it swings within the larger orbit of 

a doctrine of creation. For God's creation of earth cannot be redeemed 

in any intelligible sense of the word apart from a doctrine of the cosmos 

which is his home, his definite place, the theatre of his selfhood under 

God, in corporation with his neighbour, and in caring relationship with 

nature, his sister." 

http://www.augie.edu/pub/values/AAS0304_AV.html


A few other passages of The Sparrow, for comment and 

reflection 

Page 96 -- Anne -- “Are we talking science or religion?” 

P. 253 -- DW -- “God has got to be a cosmic comedian.”


More passages of The Sparrow, for comment and 

reflection 

P. 342 ff -- Planting and tending the garden.


Biblical garden images 

Genesis 2:15 -- The Lord God took the man and put him in 

the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. 

Genesis 2:18 -- Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that 

the man should be alone” ... 

Matt 26, Mark 14, John 18 -- the Garden of Gethsemane 

John 19 -- the garden tomb of Jesus 

John 20 -- Easter


More passages of The Sparrow 

P. 355 -- Traveling with Supaari from Kashan to 

Gayjur -- “Marc too wanted to know everything.” 

P. 371 -- death and burial of DW and Anne 

P. 372-373 -- “Emilio, I am your sister and we are 

orphaned.” … And so they slept: bereaved and exhausted, 

with mourning as their chaperone.



P. 375 -- “It was the gardens … The mistake. What 

you’ve been waiting for. The fatal error.” 

P. 401 -- Felipe Reyes -- “There’s an old Jewish story … 

So He breathed in, and in the places where God 

withdrew, there creation exists.” 

Recall the “zimzum” idea of Isaac Luria, which we met 

with Jürgen Moltmann in The Works of Love (p. 146). 

http://ed.augie.edu/~viste/capstone2004/0412WorkofLoveCh8.pdf



P. 401 -- Vince Giuliani -- 

Matthew 10:29 -- Are not two sparrows sold for a 

penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart 

from your Father.


Mary Doria Russell, Children of God. 

Sequel to The Sparrow. 

This is foreshadowed at the very end of The Sparrow. 

P. 404-405 -- Vince Giuliani, the Father General -- 

“Emilio, I’m sending another group out. To Rakhat. 

I thought you might like to know that. We could use 

your help. With the languages.”


Looking ahead -- 

Random house will publish the third novel of Mary Doria 

Russell, A Thread of Grace, in January 2005. 

http://users.adelphia.net/~druss44121/abouttheauthor.htm

Mary Doria Russell, The Sparrow

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