Biblical narrative Archives

Cover image of "Reading Genesis" by Marilynne Robinson

Reading Genesis, Marilynne Robinson. Farrar, Straus and Giroux (ISBN: 9780374613440), 2024.

Summary: Marilynne Robinson’s interpretation of Genesis, exploring the problem of evil in the world and the goodness of God.

“The Bible is a theodicy, a meditation on the problem of evil. This being true, it must take account of things as they are. It must acknowledge in a meaningful way the darkest aspects of the reality we experience, and it must reconcile them with the goodness of God and of Being itself against which this darkness stands out so sharply.”

Novelist and essayist Marilynne Robinson offers in these opening lines not only her perspective on the Bible but the central themes of her reading of Genesis. Though theologically astute, she does not approach Genesis as a theologian but as a coherent narrative–a story. She’s not interested in controversies over creation or flood but in what they reveal of the God of the Bible. Nor is she interested in the efforts of critical scholarship to dissect the book into its component sources. Rather, she offers a reading that considers Genesis as a whole book within our Bibles.

She’s not put off by other ancient creation and flood narratives. Instead she highlights the distinctives of the Genesis narrative. Among those distinctives is the reticence to speak of God’s activity prior to creation. Also, we see the goodness of the creation and the elevated status of humanity. Likewise, the flood is not a story of utter obliteration but of severe mercy in which God recognizes both Noah’s righteousness and what he has made.

Robinson traces the story of human evil throughout Genesis: the fall, the murder of Cain. The boasts of Lamech. The hubris of Babel. Even in the story of Abraham and his descendants, Genesis narrates flawed human beings. Abraham passes off his wife as his sister, sends Hagar and her son into the wilderness. Isaac and Rebecca play favorites with their sons. Jacob practices deception. And Joseph seizes the land of the Egyptians while giving his family choice land in Goshen (an observation by Robinson I’ve not seen elsewhere).

Robinson notes the singular lack of an effort to sanitize this history. It’s “unsanitary” nature is the basis on which she argues the grace of God. God protects Cain rather than kills him. Despite Abraham’s failures, God makes extravagant promises that Abraham believes and God hears Hagar, and makes of her son a great nation as well.

And the family begins to imitate the mercies and generosity of God. Jacob recognizes the justice of his brother’s grievance and seeks to make what amends he can and the brothers embrace. A cautious rapprochement to be sure but better than the threatened vengeance. And the brother with the greatest cause for vengeance most freely forgives. Joseph offers home and help (after testing) to brothers who sold him into slavery.

I was most interested in the episode of the binding of Isaac. Robinson focuses on the episode’s clear ban on child sacrifice, in contrast to the surrounding nations. I appreciate that she notes the parallels with the sending of Hagar and Ishmael into the wilderness. Yet I wonder, as does Richard Mid d leton, how well does Abraham do on the test. He obeys implicitly. But might God have wanted more from “the father of nations”? Why does Abraham not intercede, as he did for his nephew Lot and evil Sodom? Why doesn’t he say, “take me instead of your son, that your promise might be fulfilled in him”? Nor does Robinson explore the consequences for Isaac, for the relationship between him and his father (they live apart afterward) and for Sarah. As a storyteller, I found her discussion of this incident incomplete at best.

That said, the book is an invitation for us to read Genesis with Robinson. Marilynne Robinson’s interpretation of Genesis, interesting as it is, is not as important as encountering the story for ourselves. To help with that, the book includes the text of the King James Version (KJV) of Genesis. I don’t know the reason for this choice of version other than the stateliness of the language and the fact that the KJV is in the public domain. For most readers new to this text, I would recommend reading it in a contemporary translation, perhaps the New Revised Standard Version or the New International Version.

Regardless, rather than arguing about the science or versions or historicity of the book, Robinson invites us to explore this story, of God’s dealings with humanity at their occasional best and more typically worst. Instead of remaining aloof, God wades into the mess, laying the groundwork for redemption.

[One minor quibble. The cover design makes it difficult to read the title and author of the book either on physical copies or with digital images like that above. My bookseller searched and searched the section where the book was supposed to be before finally locating it.]

Biblical Critical Theory, Christopher Watkin. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2023.

Summary: An attempt along the lines of Augustine’s City of God to offer a comprehensive overview of how the biblical account from Genesis to Revelation to engage in a critique of late modern culture and the critical theories that have also attempted to analyze the culture.

Critical theory, and particularly critical race theory has become much discussed on the US political and cultural scene even though many participants in such discussions have little more than soundbite understandings of these terms. I suspect that it is this discussion that has created a certain “buzz” in Christian publishing circles over Christopher Watkin’s Biblical Critical Theory. While Watkin engages various critical theorists from Marx to Derrida to Foucault, coming from an academic background in French studies, he seeks to do far more.

His intent is to show how the Bible, from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 provides the basis for a critique of late modern culture in the various facets of its life, while engaging other theorists who attempt to do so. He draws his imspiration for this project spanning more than 600 pages from Augustine’s City of God, which he sees as engaged in a similar project in critiquing the City of Man, exemplified in the late, declining Roman empire, in the light of the City of God, God’s rule in the world.

The Introduction to this work is vital to understanding the framework that will inform all that follows. First is Watkin’s understanding of culture, which he articulates in terms of figure, referring both to the idea of “figures of speech” that reflect the patterns and rhythms that shape our lives and the “figure-ground” distinction of Gestalt psychology that he broadens from perception into a “way of understanding how we live in the world.” Figures include 1) Language, ideas, and stories, 2) Time and space, 3) The structure of reality, 4) Behavior, 5) Relationships, and 6) Objects. Drawing on Charles Taylor’s idea of social imaginaries, he suggests a slightly more flexible term, “worlds,” to describe the ensembles of figures that make up a culture. In turn, critical theories are “theoretical approaches to the whole of life that make certain things viable, visible, and valuable.

The problem Watkin sees in theories of culture are two-fold. One is that they tend to create either-or binaries around which theories (and camps) are polarized, and as human systems are admixtures of truth to be affirmed and error to be avoided. One the one hand, there is much of worth to be learned from these theories, yet the Christian will find these inadequate. What is the way forward, then? Watkin proposes the idea of diagonalization, in which inter-related biblical truths offer novel approaches connecting what is true and good in each approach in ways neither envisions, avoiding both dichotomizing and compromise. His intent is to show how the Bible “out-narrates” the cultural critics, but to do so in a way that interweaves cultural engagement (the City of Man) with biblical critique (the City of God).

Watkin does not simply offer a theoretical approach but implements it in twenty-eight succeeding chapter covering the biblical material from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22. Before beginning with Genesis 1, Watkin focuses on the Triune creator of all and the realty that the Trinity reveals that all reality is personal, absolute and relational, truth that diagonalizes dichotomies of absolute and personal, science and art, and communal societies that crush individuality versus modern societies that exalt the individual at the expense of the communal. He then turns to Genesis 1 showing how God addresses dichotomies of chaos and order as he speaks creation into being and how God’s speaking into what was formless and void diagonalizes the dichotomy of language creating the distinctions of reality versus reality being transparent to reality. He also introduces the idea of gratuity, that God makes a good world not out of necessity nor in response to others, but freely, for God’s own pleasure. He will recur to this idea at various points contrasting human systems of acting in certain ways to produce a result versus God’s acting in ways apart from what humans earn or deserve, what he refers to as n-shaped versus u-shaped figures.

It is not possible to cover the breadth of what Watkin does over the succeeding chapters in the space of a review. Every chapter sparkles with insights relating scripture to matters of culture. The promise to Abraham addresses our dichotomizing of faith and reason. The incarnation addresses our dichotomies of particular and universal. The gospel of the kingdom addresses competing narratives of the rich being blessed as rich, and the poor in their poverty. The poor are blessed for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. He offers a striking discussion of the church as vital in resisting the subsuming of civil society into the market state. His discussion of the idea of being exiles and strangers challenges dichotomies of cultural assimilation versus isolation.

There are two possible critiques I think that may be offered. At times, diagonalization felt forced or an over-simplification. As a dominant method used over and over again, I felt we were being offered a toolkit of cultural engagement that basically had one tool. While it is a powerful one and I have often argued along similar lines that Christians turn neither to left nor right but offer a third way, a unique perspective to our society, I wonder if this is our only way to engage. What about instances when there isn’t a dichotomy?

The other critique is one Watkin acknowledges in his conclusion. This is a Euro-American-Australian work that does not engage South American, African or Asian perspectives. Theological resources cited are Western ones, other than Augustine, who was African. I recognize that given a project of this size, and the breadth of material Watkin addresses, both biblical and critical, that this may have been beyond the scope of this work. A few chapters that did this as examples may have been helpful. Watkin invites and welcomes others to add to what he has done, acknowledging its limits.

That said, Watkin has given us a singular work, one that goes beyond mere criticism to point to how Christians may use the Bible in cultural critique and how we might out-narrate rather than simply criticize, to do so in thoughtful conversation and engagement. He offers foundational insights just waiting to be expanded as well as a compelling overview of the narrative arc of scripture and its relevance to our cultural life.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.