I am really enjoying Marilynne Robinson’s latest book Reading Genesis. Many of us have loved her novels, especially the Gilead series, filled with rich insight into human life, themes of family, love, home, and the quest for a faith that makes some sense of it all.
Now she turns to the Bible itself and how we can find there a God who lives and walks with us, through it all. Her fundamental thesis is that in this work we can find (as the blurb on the front cover says) ‘universal truths about what it means to be human’.
As the book of Genesis does too, Robinson begins with creation and in that context she makes this quite stunning statement: Genesis insists that God is the good creator of a good creation. This assertion is unique, amongst all the ancient creation myths and philosophies. According to Genesis, creation is good. God sees beauty and goodness in it all.
More than that, unlike the demands of other creation stories she cites, where humans are created to make sacrifices to or in other ways serve the purposes of the gods, according to Genesis humans are not created for their use or function. Rather, ‘The God of Genesis is unique in His having not a use but instead a mysterious divine intention for them.’ (p.15)
None of this is to deny the reality of evil, in which category Robinson includes natural disasters and suffering, together with the moral failings of humans. The reality of and some response to such evil is, in her view, ‘essential to the whole narrative of Scripture’. (p.13). But all of that exists within the reality of a good creator and a good creation, expressive of the creator’s loving purposes.
In passing, I make several brief comments. I find myself surprised by Robinson’ use of male language for God, and capitalized. I think, too, that her survey of ancient creation stories is rather limited, and wonder what the First Nations peoples, such as from Australia or indeed her own United States of America might wish to add to this conversation. I do not presume to speak for them, but I would expect they would have a richer perspective to offer to the conversation. Of course, Robinson refers only to those creation stories or myths which were known to the biblical authors as alternative accounts, which explains her focus on them.
The approach Robinson takes to the biblical texts is really worth noting. It is profoundly respectful, combining an awareness of serious textual scholarship with a personal and faithful openness. She does not adopt the distancing ‘critical’ stance of many textual scholars, but rather writes as one open to be challenged, encouraged, and shaped by the text. Here I recall the idea I first encountered in Walter Brueggemann, that these texts do not so much explain the origins of the universe as sketch a world into which we might live.
While I hope to say much more about this wonderful book, I want here to note the way Robinson sees and approaches the texts, as the product of theological exploration and communal reflection. Here we have the work of generations of people, both individuals and groups, people just like ourselves, in wonder at the reality of the world and our life within it, drawing upon stories and traditions, to formulate a response to it all. Thus she writes:
I assume that the reflection on Scripture by its compositors was theological in nature, governed by beliefs of overriding importance, first of all that God is one. Crucially, the literature could only have been dependent on deep faith that the community that created, studied, and revered it did so in service to an extraordinary calling, to embed in language a knowledge of God. I assume that the text as a whole developed with a full awareness of the text as it existed to that point and of the traditions, thoughts, and events that might be assimilable to it. Scripture grew from this basis for centuries, continuously reflecting on itself, seeing ongoing history as meaningful or revelatory just as the lives of the patriarchs and the great exodus had been. (p.7).
It is deeply moving to imagine that our own reading and explorations participate in just this same reflection, as we too hope to embed in our language and place something of that same knowing. This is not the knowledge of information, or what is sometimes called ‘biblical truth’ to be acquired and defended. Rather it is a form of knowing that takes hold of us, leading us towards truthfulness, humility, hope, and a fullness of life with the earth and each other. Such is the purpose of the God who created it all and saw that it was (and is) ‘very good’.
Thanks, Frank
I remember a brief comment of Terence Fretheim’s in his book on theodicy. It was the first time I’d been confronted by it, but it may not have been unique to him.
The creation account is clear that creation is very good. It does not claim that it is perfect.
I appreciate the reminder, and your review of Robinson’s book.