Add to favorites Examiner Bio

Book Review: In The Beginning, God: Creation, Culture, and the Spiritual Life

Marva Dawn. In The Beginning, God: Creation, Culture, and the Spiritual Life. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press. $15.00. Paperback. 124 pages. ISBN 978-0-8308-3707-6.

 

            This doesn’t happen very often in American churches, but have you ever tried to read Genesis 1 and 2 in such a way that it is similar to the way the first hearers of the text did? Probably not, but that is the challenge and encouragement that Marva Dawn in In The Beginning, God: Creation, Culture, and the Spiritual Life lays out. Genesis 1 and 2 are often studied and debated for specifically the purpose of finding out how long it took God to create, well, everything.

            But as Dawn rightly points out, the debate on “new earth” vs. “old earth” is a bit of a moot point because at the end of the day the salvation of either position holder is not in jeopardy. More so, the point of the text in its original context is not necessarily to show how long it took God to create, but rather a beautiful narrative that it was in fact God, Yahweh, who did the creating and not some other false god. Additionally, as Dawn puts it best, “Science does not disprove praise, nor does the Bible’s beginning claim to be an explanation—rather an exultation.” (pg. 25)

            With agreements on this point, the reader moves in to the meat of the book where Dawn spends several, short chapters expositing and defending her view of the Genesis 1 and 2 texts from a liturgical standpoint, one as that of praise and worship. For Dawn, it is important that the reader of Genesis 1 and 2 read slowly and carefully so as to not skip over anything of importance (which, for Dawn is everything) and to take the time and effort to understand the original language to the best to one’s ability. As most readers who read In the Beginning are not familiar with the ancient Hebrew language, Dawn spends a good amount of ink helping those of us to understand.

            Dawn’s personal passions come out well in this book as well. It is apparent that she is theologically passionate about such matters as peacemaking, ecological stewardship, social justice, proper human sexuality and other things. While at times some of her passionate expositions on the pages seem like rabbit trails, by and large she stays true to the text and not venturing too far away from the original meaning and original intent of the author. Granted, with 2,000 years of Church thought behind us, we are able to apply things to our current 21^st century American Christian situation that was probably not explicitly written about by the original author, but nevertheless is a truism. That, as it is, is something that Dawn is aware of and while her modern-day applications to social concerns are noticeable throughout each chapter, she does stay true to the message of Genesis 1 and 2 in its original context.

            The only concerns about this book that I had were fairly light. For one, I thought the book was more devotional in nature and if her audience is toward a theologically astute population then this book would be considered light on depth and one wishes that more pages were spent on certain thoughts instead of the “hurry” that each chapter presented. Secondly, I feel as though Dawn did not clarify (or perhaps did not have the room to expand on) her thoughts about “dominion” on page 46 specifically. She takes issue with the common translation of the Hebrew “Beth” in Genesis 1:26, 28 as “over”; as in “have dominion over fish….” She argues that the better translation of Beth is “with”, which of course has theological implications. My thinking is that this is fine, but the point of the passage is more with the word “dominion” and the natural question being raised of What does it mean to have dominion over fish and animals, etc.?

            Nonetheless, this book is a good primer for people interested in the crossroads between (as the sub-title suggests) creation, culture, and the spiritual life. Many Christians today are quick to dismiss the use of liturgy (meaning= participation) in the church worship service. This is both a travesty and, as Dawn points out in Genesis 1 and 2, unbiblical. Liturgy varies from church to church, in fact, all churches use some type of liturgy. But the argument from Dawn in In The Beginning is that we need to be more aware of the Bible’s own use of liturgy (as that of Genesis 1 and 2) and practice/participate that into our modern worship services.