Sacred Tribes Journal
Volume 6 Number 1 (2011):72-73 ISSN: 1941-8167
ORIGINS AND MORE: COSMOS AS DIVINE TEMPLE The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate, by John H. Walton. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press Academic, 2009. 192 pages. Paperback.
John W. Morehead
The cultural debate over nature and the cosmos continues to rage, usually in two forms, the first touching on origins, and the second in terms of care of the environment. Rarely does a volume come along with application to both spheres, but that is the case with a book by John H. Walton, professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College, titled The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate. The interesting thing about this book for me is that it looks at the literary and cultural context of the ancient Near East and what the Genesis creation narratives would have said to the Hebrews as it reflected their cultural context. This cultural and literary perspective provides the foundation for Walton's argument that the Genesis creation stories are functional rather than material in nature, and that this results in a portrait that is painted of the cosmos as a divine temple.
This volume includes a number of ideas that many evangelicals will no doubt find provocative, but are nevertheless worthy of reflection. Consider this intriguing excerpt from Chapter 1, "Genesis is Ancient Cosmology": Deity pervaded the ancient world. Nothing happened independently of deity. The gods did not "intervene" because that would assume that there was a world of events outside of them that they could step into and out of. The Israelites, along with everyone else in the ancient world, believed instead that every event was the act of deity -- that every plant that grew, every baby born, every drop of rain and every climatic disaster was an act of God. No "natural" law governed the cosmos; deity ran the cosmos or was inherent in it. There were no "miracles" (in the sense of events deviating from the "natural"), there were only signs of the deity's activities (sometimes favorable, sometimes not). The idea that deity got things running
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Morehead: The Lost World of Genesis One
then just stood back or engaged himself elsewhere (deism) would have been laughable in the ancient world because it was not even conceivable. As suggested by Richard Bube, if God were to unplug himself in that way from the cosmos, we and everything else in the cosmos would simply cease to exist. There is nothing "natural" about the world in biblical theology, nor should there be in ours. I take away from this a few observations particularly relevant to this special edition of the journal. Although Walton develops his thesis in light biblical exegesis with application to the creation/evolution debate, as will most of his evangelical readers, and the book does make an important contribution in this arena, I suggest that application can be made in two additional areas. First, the idea of the creation narratives as a discussion of God's cosmic temple is a reminder of Protestant, and especially evangelical neglect of a natural and creation theology. In light of Walton’s thesis this should include the elements of God's temple indwelling through the cosmos, as well as the resulting human responsibilities as stewards and caretakers of the creation. The lack of these aspects in Protestant discussions of creation are glaring, particularly in light of Dark Green Religion. Second, Walton's thesis presents a point of contact for Christian dialogue, not only on the origins debate and the interface between science and theology, but also with pagans and others concerned with Dark Green Religion. I encourage evangelicals to entertain Walton's thesis with an eye toward a number of significant applications.
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