Book Review: Genesis for Normal People

A few years ago, I tried posting book reviews.  A good idea, but not much follow through on my part.  I posted three of them.  So, let's try again.

Information about the Book

Title: Genesis for Normal People, 2nd edition

Authors: Peter Enns & Jared Byas

Publisher: The Bible for Normal People

Copyright date: 2019

Links:

I purchase the book from Amazon - here is the link

Summary

The book has eleven chapters, an introduction, and a conclusion.  Each of the chapters focuses on a set of chapters from Genesis.  The book also contains a Study Guide, and could be used for group study.

The authors stated purpose is NOT to write a book for scholars or seminary students, but for "normal" people - and I guess normal people are those who are not defined as scholars or seminary students.  

Impressions

• The book is very readable.  It engaged my curiosity and attention.  The Jared and Peter write well. 
• While it was not written for scholars or seminary students, I think they should read it.  It doesn't include the deep, scholarly background that I assume seminary students read, but it does seem well grounded in scholarship.  
• Most of all, for me, the book was full of ah ha moments.  Jared and Peter engage the scripture in new (for me) ways.  Readers are challenged to let go of presuppositions, and look for new insight.  I knew from the first chapter - reading Genesis as an ancient text - that the book would lead me to growth in my understanding of Genesis.  By the time I got to Chapter 3 (the creation stories), I was already planning a Sunday school lesson so that I could share some of the insight I was experiencing.

Recommendation

Yes yes yes.  Go read this book.  On the back cover, Rachel Held Evans is quoted as saying, "The authors manage to simplify without dumbing down, challenge without confusing, and dig for deep truth without compromising their intellectual integrity A must-read for anyone who cares enough about the Bible to want to read and understand it on its own terms."  I can't say it better myself.

Posts
Here are posts I've written that were inspired by the book.

Ancient vs Modern

Look at yesterday's quote again:

Stories are not waiting to be molded to fit our experience.  They are waiting for us to take the risk of entering their world of the story and be changed by it.  (Peter Enns and Jared Byas)

The quote is at the beginning of the book Genesis for Normal People.  The authors are attempting (and doing a good job) to convince us, the reader, that Genesis is an ancient story.  We can't just walk into the story with our own expectations - our modern view of the world - and then twist the story to fit what we know.

What difference does that make? Think for a moment how much difficulty we can have understanding the experiences of someone of a different age: the Millennials vs the Greatest Generation, for example.  They seem to speak different languages, have different life expectations,  approach situations differently.  That doesn't mean that have different values - they love their children, they value generosity, they want to serve.  Their cultures in time are different, though, and that makes stepping into a different generation's story difficult.  

Extend that thought to 3000 or 4000 years.  Why do we ever expect that we can walk into a biblical story and just have it fit our viewpoint?   Look at it through the eyes of those to whom it was written and the meaning changes. The story has a different life transforming effect.  

Why is that so hard for some of us to understand?

Sharing the Adventure

Thinking about stories, still:

Stories are not waiting to be molded to fit our experience.  They are waiting for us to take the risk of entering their world of the story and be changed by it.  (Peter Enns and Jared Byas)

I was moving through Facebook the other day - going down the rabbit hole - when I stumbled across a video of a sermon.  The sermon was based on the story (parable) we call the Prodigal Son.  The point the "pastor" was determined to make was that the story did not include the mother.  Where was she? Was she out getting her hair done? Why wasn't she home where she belong?

Grr.

Setting aside my disgust with this twist on a sermon, think for a moment about the story.  I wonder if the pastor had ever taken the risk of actually entering the story and allowing himself to be changed by it.  He certainly seems (to me) to be trying to mold the story to his own purposes.

If you are a preacher, this is a temptation. You have something you want to say, and you'll use the Bible to support your idea.  Instead, we are called to enter the story, and then share with those listening our adventure.

Genesis as Story

In the book Genesis for Normal People by Peter Enns and Jared Byas, the authors describe the literary style of the book of Genesis: not textbook, not a book of principles, but instead an ancient story, written in a particular time to a particular people.

That started me thinking about story.  What does it mean that Genesis is an ancient story? What role does story play in our lives?

A few weeks ago I attended the funeral of the brother of a friend.  Joel was - it was made clear that day - a storyteller.  Why did he tell stories?  His brother, our friend Jeff, related a story Joel told about an experience he had on his birthday.  Through this story, we learned about Joel's personality, his parents' reactions to him, and had a glimpse of the way life was for Joel at the time.  Jeff was able to tell the story because Joel had shared it - but it was before Jeff had been born.

Through stories we learn about the people, their relationships with each other, and we glimpse what life was like for them.  Through stories, what we didn't experience ourselves becomes clearer, in a way that a textbook or a book of principles could never accomplish.

The truth of a story isn't its factual basis, but is instead its underlying truth.  This is what I was like.  This is what life was like.  This is what it was like in my community, and with the people I loved or hated.  

In Genesis, we have the story that helps us to understand that God created the universe, the world, the animals, man and woman.  In Genesis we learn the truth that God created us.  In Genesis we hear the struggle of those following God - or trying to follow God - and what is was like to learn how to do that.  In Genesis we see how God didn't give up on his creation, even when his creation gave up on him.  In the story of Genesis, we see the Israelites beginning to learn that they are the people of God - and from that truth, we can learn that we are the people of God.  Created, loved, and never abandoned.  

Let's see a history book do that (although I do love history books).