“I believe in Jesus but have trouble with Genesis 1. Can I be a Christian?”

“I believe in Jesus but have trouble with Genesis 1.  Can I be a Christian?”

I have heard this phrase or some version of it more than once over the last couple of years, from some whose hearts are being stirred to follow Jesus.  I’ve also had a few questions over the last week as well, which follow the same line of thought.  The ongoing discussion in our culture on the issue of creationism versus science using Genesis 1 as the lightening rod, has impacted, and in my experience often hindered people in becoming disciples of Jesus.

I think what they are really asking is “Do you have to read these texts in early Genesis in a manner which is commonly known as literalism.”  Before I attempt, in a brief manner to address the question, let me note that in the Reformed tradition of which we are part, we do not force anyone to approach Scripture in one single manner.  Certainly literalism, or a concrete reading, is one approach, to reading the 66 books of the Bible.

My answer comes back once again to something I’ve mentioned in at least one post: the issue of literary genre.  In a newspaper, for example, we read the front page with different expectations than we do the comic section.  Mixing the two can lead to real chaos.

So another approach to studying Scripture is to ask a first basic question:  What is the literary genre?  Using this approach, one sees a great deal of variety in the Bible, including poetry, historical narrative, gospels, letters, Hebrew prophecy, and apocalypses, as just a few of the more common types.  Starting with an understanding of the genre, one can explore the intent of the original author and listener, grappling first with the meaning for that particular time and then moving forward to applications for our own time.  When I write the blog comments, I have spent time in this manner, but because of space limitations, I usually skip to present day applications.  Honestly, the blog just scratches the surface of the many issues in our passages.  Certainly attending an adult discipleship class allows for deeper, interactive discussion on Scripture.  (BTW – in genre terms the previous sentence is a shameless plug for attending our discipleship opportunities!)

What genre is the first chapter chapters?  The question is complex and in some ways beyond what can be discussed in a blog posting.  Let me try to condense my thoughts.  Before I do so, I must also point out an issue of our own cultural bias, coming from the basic philosophy of the Enlightenment, which some term as modernism.  In general we are trained to see truth in a document only if it is rationalistic.  We give higher value to science text books and other styles which have confirmable, testable phenomena. We place less trust in finding truth in poetry, for example.  How do you test the hypothesis of a poem in a rational manner?   

So we may agonize over a text like Genesis 1 in a very different manner than anyone before roughly 1750.  We can try to shoehorn a text into a science textbook genre, to prove that is truth in some scientific manner, because we, in an unquestioning manner, think this is the only way to prove truth.  This would be an unnecessary exercise for those coming hundreds of years before us.  In previous times truth could be found in many genres.  In some manner, the current discussion about the truth of creationism versus evolution takes place within an arena which places a science as the bedrock of truth.  Whichever wins, both sides presuppose that truth is only found in scientific rationalism.

David Wilkinson, who has advanced degrees in both theology and astrophysics, has written a brilliant book called The Message of Creation.  I find his comments about reading Genesis as a science textbook to be illuminating.  He writes: 

Science is extremely successful, but that success is based on the fact that it limits its area of questions.  If my wife kisses me, then as a good scientist, I can say that what caused this was ‘neck-muscle movements reducing the distance between two pairs of lips, a reciprocal transmission of carbon and microbes, and a contraction of orbicular muscles’.  I would be entirely correct in the scientific description of the reason for the kiss.  But I would also be a very sad human being!  There are other issues of meaning and purpose that are to do with the motives for my wife’s actions; that is, she is demonstrating her love. Genesis 1 is reminding us that in terms of questions of meaning and purpose, God is the only answer.

From a genre point of view, Genesis 1, which I believe to be one of the most important passages in all of Scripture, appears to be a form of liturgical narrative, with elements of poetry as well.  This in no manner weakens the great issues for life found in this passage.  (See my blog entry!)  As I’ve noted, the important question is Who? not How?

Furthermore, this in no way leads to a slippery slope theory in which even the cross and resurrection fall, because the genre for the gospels is a very different genre than early Genesis.  One reads the gospels with closer to how we would read a biography.  Proper use of literary genre will in no way threaten these events!

 

I apologize for the long entry.  However you approach Genesis 1, may it not build a wall between you and God. 

Peace,
Randy