The Book of Genesis, part 8: Why this story?
Genesis has shaped human history for generations, but it continues to offer new insights and raise new questionsGenesis is the work of several different hands, all of them from very long ago. It gathers up stories and traditions that circulated by word...
The Book of Genesis, part 7: The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob | Jane Williams
Genesis raises some thorny questions about God's morality, but to view them entirely through our own lens is disrespectfulGenesis is itself the work of profound theologians, and it has been used as the source text for many more. But as well as providin...
The Book of Genesis, part 6: Patriarchs and others | Jane Williams
What is to be made, theologically, of the unabashedly male-dominated, hierarchical world of Genesis?Genesis is a patriarchal narrative, through and through. Its world is one where women exist entirely as adjuncts to men, and where safety and success fo...
The Book of Genesis, part 5: Genesis and the imagination | Jane Williams
In Genesis's surface narrative of reality, it is important to remember that God is a player in this drama, tooGenesis is full of good stories, several of which have become deeply embedded in the collective imagination, at least in outline, if not in de...
The Book of Genesis, part 2: In the beginning | Jane Williams
The history of how Genesis was created and passed down through the ages reminds us that we have the book for a reasonIn the beginning, Genesis was not a book, or even part of a book. We are so used to the ease and convenience of printing that it is har...
The Book of Genesis, part 1: God created | Jane Williams
Genesis looks at what the culture around it believes about the nature of the material world, and disagrees with it profoundlyGenesis 1 and 2 must be among the most hotly debated texts in the Bible. But our obsession with whether and how they can be rec...
Lent is a chance to take stock and imagine a changed world | Jane Williams