Creation Series #1
June 10, 2007
Our next Transmission will be on June 20th, which is almost the summer solstice, and we’ll be doing it in Central Park (unless it rains, in which case we’ll be at Katherine’s). The solstices aren’t exactly Christian holidays per se, but they are sufficiently astronomical that they make their way into my religious traditions (some suggest that Dec 25 was picked for Christmas in order to coincide with the winter solstice).
In any case, in order to celebrate the longest day of the year, the day during which the sun is directly over the tropic of Cancer, the day when the eart is tilted most towards the sun, I thought it would be fun to examine the creation accounts in Genesis. Not only does this subject seem appropriately cosmic, but the recent opening of the Creation Museum in Kentucky has put the first few chapters of Genesis in everyone’s mind.
Maybe it’s because I’ve heard it since I was a kid, but I still get chills up and down my spine when I hear the words “In the beginning, whe God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from god swept over the face of the waters.” It’s just so beautiful There’s so much contained in these stories, in fact, that I’ll be doing a brief series on them here on the blog to prepare for the next Transmission.
This first one will be short since it has much introduction, but I just wanted to give a brief overview of what I’ll be doing. First, I’ll be holding myself to the first two chapters; The Garden of Eden stories are very powerful, but there’s so much to deal with in terms of original sin, gender roles, and patriarchy that I’d rather stick with creation. Second, I’ll be examining these stories with as many lenses as possible, but my interests are going to be theological, not scientific. As my New Testament professor told me, “the authors of the Bible didn’t always write down what happened, they wrote down what it meant.” That’s the attitude with which I’ll be exploring Genesis.
Enjoy!