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A review by skinnercolin221
The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate by John H. Walton
4.0
My ramblings while my kids jump on me as I attempt a review: this is a great look at how to interpret Genesis 1 in light of authorial intent and the culture of the time. I’ll be honest that I need to take a second look at the arguments in the first few chapters, because I don’t think the small space really allowed for a thorough comparison of the Bible and other ancient near east texts of a similar time. I still think the functional view is a great idea and he does a great job of dealing with objections through out the book. The one objection I’m not sure he sufficiently dealt with was “can’t the Hebrew ‘create’ refer to both material and functional creation?” Regardless, it was the first time I noticed how little “ex nihilo” happens in Genesis 1. There’s nearly always a pre-existing substance being molded in some way with a function prescribed.
I think the strongest points were comparisons to Joshua’s command for the sun to stand still and that the Bible had no anachronistic scientific advancement in it’s description of the natural world. Both of these would lead us to believe that the authors spoke to the people of their time as people of their time. As someone studying earth history and biology at a university, this is helpful to keep straight, because then there is no uncomfortable squeezing of empirical scientific results into an ancient mind, whether it would align or not.
I think the author’s goal is great. The false dichotomy of “choose God or science” sometimes pushed by both the religious and the secular has successfully destroyed many people’s faith. It can also be psychologically destructive as some people (myself included) have had a conflicting sense of both a desire to honor God and a desire to be honest about evidence in a field I love. This book offers an imperfect first attempt (as the author admits) to find an interpretation of scripture that is faithful, while allowing science to be science. It’s not the first, but I think it’s the best I’ve seen yet.
I think the strongest points were comparisons to Joshua’s command for the sun to stand still and that the Bible had no anachronistic scientific advancement in it’s description of the natural world. Both of these would lead us to believe that the authors spoke to the people of their time as people of their time. As someone studying earth history and biology at a university, this is helpful to keep straight, because then there is no uncomfortable squeezing of empirical scientific results into an ancient mind, whether it would align or not.
I think the author’s goal is great. The false dichotomy of “choose God or science” sometimes pushed by both the religious and the secular has successfully destroyed many people’s faith. It can also be psychologically destructive as some people (myself included) have had a conflicting sense of both a desire to honor God and a desire to be honest about evidence in a field I love. This book offers an imperfect first attempt (as the author admits) to find an interpretation of scripture that is faithful, while allowing science to be science. It’s not the first, but I think it’s the best I’ve seen yet.