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Hasn’t the church always read the creation account in Genesis 1 as a straightfoward narrative? Haven’t Christians always believed that the earth is relatively young and that the creation days were twenty-four hour days? How do I just up and think I can read this text anyway I want to? Where has the Holy Spirit been all these years?
Todd PattersonEvangelicals often read the creation account in Genesis 1 as straightforward history but I’ve been suggesting that we need to pay attention to the literary features of the text and its ancient Near Eastern background. The text is historical narrative, I affirm, but also literary and figurative. This raises three questions that we need to address.
[Read more…]The creation account of Genesis 1 is divided into six days of creation and one day of rest. Each day of creation ends with the same two clauses: “And there was evening and there was morning, day 1,” “…evening…morning…the second day,” etc. To us, it seems perfectly clear that day means a 24 hour period. Why else would he say, “And there was evening, and there was morning…?” So why do some interpreters, like myself, say it’s possible that Moses uses “day” in a non plain-language way?
[Read more…]Memes are a modern phenomenon that we associate with social media. But in a way, memes are as old as human culture. In this post, I want to think about the idea of “temple” as a meme in the ancient Near East that served as a way for people to understand their place in creation, especially their place in relation to God. We’ll see how the idea of temple, like a meme, was transferrable to different contexts. Then we’ll be ready for the next post, when we’ll see how Genesis 1 uses the temple meme to communicate theological truths about creation.
[Read more…]Sometimes it seems like at the seminary it’s just the same ol’, same ol’ since I’ve been teaching the same classes for at least eight years. On the other hand, there are always new students and that’s what makes everything new every year. Along with new students, this year I’m hoping to do some new publishing, new coaching, new service for the denomination, and we’re hoping new partners will join our team.
[Read more…]For the past two years I’ve held an official position at the evangelical seminary (~associate professor) in Slovakia. This has been a good arrangement as it has helped me feel more a part of the faculty and it allows for my publishing activity to contribute to the seminary’s accreditation. Financially, however, it has proved to be a challenge for us and I have decided to go back to volunteer status until we can increase our regular financial support levels.
[Read more…]I’ve found that our web site is a good way to keep people informed about our ministry. It’s also a good medium for my classes at the seminary, so I have pages dedicated to each of the classes that I teach complete with recordings of my lectures. More than ever, however, visitors are coming to our site to read the articles I’ve written on creation and science.
[Read more…]For the fifth year in a row I attended the annual conferences of the Evangelical Theological Society and the Society for Biblical Literature. These are professional conferences where theologians present research they are currently working on. With more than 10,000 theologians attending from all over the world, it’s a good opportunity to get feedback before (or after) publishing an article or book. This year I presented one paper and organized a group on the Pentateuch.
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