Reading Genesis
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3.7 • 6 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
One of our greatest novelists and thinkers presents a radiant, thrilling interpretation of the book of Genesis.
For generations, the book of Genesis has been treated by scholars as a collection of documents by various hands, expressing different factional interests, with borrowings from other ancient literatures that mark the text as derivative. In other words, academic interpretation of Genesis has centered on the question of its basic coherency, just as fundamentalist interpretation has centered on the question of the appropriateness of reading it as literally true.
Both of these approaches preclude an appreciation of its greatness as literature, its rich articulation and exploration of themes that resonate through the whole of Scripture. Marilynne Robinson’s Reading Genesis, which includes the full text of the King James Version of the book, is a powerful consideration of the profound meanings and promise of God’s enduring covenant with humanity. This magisterial book radiates gratitude for the constancy and benevolence of God’s abiding faith in Creation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Novelist Robinson (The Death of Adam) offers a dense yet immersive close reading of the book of Genesis. Employing literary and theological lenses, the author frames the biblical book as an exemplary narrative and the figures within it as characters with agency, motive, and backstory. For example, Jacob is a trickster who schemes with his mother to steal his brother's blessing, while his "young, bright, and self-infatuated" son, Joseph, proves "blind or indifferent to the resentment that is stirring around him... in literary terms, a great character." Writing that "the text perfected very early the art of showing rather than telling," Robinson skillfully melds her literary interpretation with her theological one, offering a Christian Calvinist reading that centers God's goodness and grace ("Grace modifies law. Law cannot limit grace"). From that theological stance, she explores God's willingness to form a covenant—and generally put up—with imperfect humans, his "too-brilliant creatures." Like the biblical book it explicates, Robinson's offering is demanding, intense, and best read slowly. Patient readers will be rewarded.
