There is so much controversy about the interpretation of early Genesis nowadays that I have devoted some time and energy to trying to better understand the text. This is not the place to go into great detail about my work, but I would like to offer a few quick thoughts for your consideration.
Two of my reasons for delving more deeply into Genesis are: it is a complex and much debated story about times past, and it is such a remarkably unique text, when compared to other ancient Near Eastern creation accounts. Genesis, for example, de–deifies nature and humanity, as no other story of beginnings does. What is avant-garde and always will be about the creation stories in Genesis 1-3, is their relentless focus, not on the cosmic architecture of nature, but on relationality: God, humanity, and the world. This perspective provides us with both a meaningful structure for and a re-description of reality, which places these chapters in a sacred and destiny oriented context that invites us to make contact with the Creator. In this sense, the text is a living text that recycles our interpretive trajectory through a poetic network of divine and creaturely actions, purposes, and goals.
2 comments:
Much of the way I was taught to read the creation story(ies) of Genesis was to read it literally as historical truth whispered to the hand of Moses. If that were so, could you imagine Moses being told about the big-bang, natural selection, DNA, etc? I am rethinking just what inspiration really means.
Carter,
Thanks. Current science and theology have to be in dialogue. When they're not, both scientists and theologians lose traction and credibility.
Good for you. That's a key topic that needs some careful re-thinking. I'd be interested in where you go with it.
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