1 of 4
by Paul Borgman InterVarsity Press, 2001 252 pp.; $15, paper
by Leon R. Kass Free Press, 2003 700 pp.; $35
by Gary A. Anderson Westminster John Knox Press, 2001 257 pp.; $24.95, paper |
The new ferment in Scripture study concerns the polyvalence of the text, a rich variety of methods of interpretation, and a plurality of interpretive voices, each of which reflects and speaks from a particular context. The loser in the new enterprise, of course, is the historical-critical hegemony that dominated scholarship for a long while and that managed for the most part to hold together critical perspective and a "soft" theological sensibility that in fact lived uneasily with critical perspectives. In three recent books on Genesis, the new approaches to Scripture are on full and powerful display. While these writers differ sharply from one another, all three clearly reject the older critical reading of Genesis that was largely preoccupied either with source analysis or with Ancient Near Eastern parallels. Neither of these issues is given more than passing attention in these books, indicating the profound shift that has taken place in interpretive perspective. On offer here are three quite distinctive presentations of Genesis that rarely linger over critical issues but that proceed by eager, imaginative participation in the ongoing interpretive process.
In Genesis: The Story We Haven't Heard, Paul Borgman of Gordon College has written, as a teacher, an accessible introductory overview designed for students like his own. A professor of English, Borgman is interested in the character and power of storytelling, and he takes the Genesis texts as stories on their own terms.
By noting recurring patterns that make for good pedagogical usage, Borgman seeks to get beyond the fragmenting of the text that is as much a feature of routine Sunday worship as it is of historical-critical method. Thus:
- The discussion of Abraham and Sarah is organized around the "seven visits" that God makes to them;
- Jacob is presented in terms of "three mirrors" that reflect his ambiguous, dubious character through other characters in their shady or problematic dealings with him: Laban, Leah, and Rachel, and eventually the contentious birth of children. In each case of struggle, deception adds to the complexity of the narrative;
- Joseph is portrayed through "three descents": into the pit at the hands of his brothers, into Egypt, and into the prison house. This motif permits Borgman to portray the Joseph narrative as a comedy with good outcomes that override the descents. The whole is a fine entry into the dramatic flavor of the narrative.
The book by Leon Kass of the University of Chicago, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis, is a remarkable tour de force. An ethicist deeply rooted in classical philosophy, connected to the American Enterprise Institute, and currently chair of the President's Council on Bioethics, Kass brings to his task an immense erudition, including a capacity for the Hebrew text. As an outsider to Scripture study, he clearly writes from a perspective very different from the usual critical consensus. The outcome of his work is a close reading that pays acute attention to the nuances of the text and that sees inside the text, most often in powerfully disclosing ways, occasionally in overly ponderous statement. Kass of course eschews the usual critical questions of literary sources and cultural parallels, though in the case of the flood narrative, he cannot resist an extended contrast of the narrative to that of the Gilgamesh Epic. For the most part, his readings are fresh and quite independent. He disregards most of the critical community, completely lacking I believe reference to Christian scholarship and relying most consistently on the work of Robert Sachs, with some reference to other Jewish scholars, including Sarna and Cassuto. Just as prominent here, moreover, are his references to the classical philosophic tradition, with recurring citations of Kant, Descartes, and Rousseau. Thus Kass is able to bring to bear upon the text a set of lenses from his own expertise with which most readers of Genesis, scholarly and ecclesial, are less familiar.
share this page
RSS Feed
