Category: origins

Our last session – and where to start? Inevitably most of the content was left uncovered. I tried to get somewhere away from the idea that fall itself was just about eating a fruit when told not too. A bit like saying ‘no’ to a toddler maybe? We discussed how surely God must have known what would happen.

I tried to move towards the serpent’s attack on Adam and Eve’s identity. Pride and the desire to be like God is usually thought of as being the root. In light of the image/idol nature of humanity teaching, what was the fall about? Yes, it includes pride of course, but there is also an attack on the divine, royal nature that has been given to them as God breathed into them to animate them in his tselem. How could they desire something that they already had?

What we could not cover

I’d like to have said more about their role to continue God’s creation out into the earth, subduing it and making it all fit for God’s presence. And if they already had knowledge of good and evil, which they clearly did, what did God mean when he talked about ‘eating of the fruit of the tree of good and evil?’ Why was the serpent in the garden if that was a holy of holies as Genesis seems to suggest? How were the consequences of their actions suited to the nature of their action? Was their a change in Adam and Eve’s nature? If God knew it was going to happen it must be ultimately good?

So many questions!

It is my hope that people went away with a new sense of the depth of the origin story. I hope that people’s faith was deepened at the profound, coherence of the narrative, and the awe of being made in God’s image.

Will there every be another course like this at EV? I’d like to think so. In the style of theology a better question might be ‘Will I ever do another course like this at EV?’ Judging by the feedback a number of people would be up for one. Others who couldn’t make it have asked for a repeat. One thing I do know is that it wont be long before its all bubbling up in me again.

What do you think?

Powerpoints for Session 6

Origins 12 – Fall-ward

Origins 13 – Fall-ward – 2

The aims of session – 5 were to consider the implications of our image / idol status introduced in session 3 and bedded in via session 4 and to prepare the way for our last session which will be on the fall.

After recapping the ideas surrounding humanity as being the incarnation of Yahweh Elohim (which is pretty shocking of course) we tried ot summerise it – here’s a small part of that:

God’s own image/idol was the real deal. In contrast to the surrounding cultures this image/idol breathed, had thought, life, agency, and would truly represent and mediate the sovereign presence to creation

me

Keen to bring this into everyday life we talked about the four minute video that was set for homework and how this clearly showed the divine, royal calling of humanity in action.

Moving away from the animal kingdom I aimed to stress the practical nature of Gen 1:26-28 by talking about how the realisation of our divine/royal station effects all our dealings in our lives – ethical, moral, business – all relations. Then we looked at the tragedy of our projection of our own nature into an idol. Imagine my surprise when, unprompted – someone came to one of the main conclusions. I love teaching.

Then a rabbit popped it’s head out of a hole to remind us that perhaps the image/idol material was all about ‘identity‘. Thanks for dropping by Mr Rabbit.

To end this session we did a brief walk through writers of the 2nd to 21st centaury and how they spoke of this image/idol status. If you want to see the inspiring quotes of the likes of Maximus the confession and C.S. Lewis see the powerpoint.

Now, we are ready to look at the fall…..

Powerpoints for session 5

Origins 9 – So what?

Origins 10 – Fall-ward

Eyes to see, ears to hear.

Our fourth session already – and I was really pleased that the ‘full class’ discussion times were gaining momentum.

The aim of this session was to dig deeper into why the authors of Genesis 1 chose such contentious word, tslem, (in Hebrew obviously!) to describe humanity given that most often tslem is used to describe idols. Why not use a less loaded word; there were certainly other options. We suggested that this must have been a deliberate choice, or else something of an oversight. We left this hanging at the end of session 3.

In session 4 we saw that the Hebrews, surrounded by polytheistic cultures as they were, stuck their necks out and wrote their creation account as a polemic (argument) against the practices and beliefs of those cultures. We saw that the Hebrew Bible is very clear concerning the nature of dumb and detestable idols, and that the Mesopotamian and Egyptian cultures were too. It was just that later had views completely out of sync with Israel.

To the Hebrews creation was a temple, but a temple it seems with no cult statue (idol). There are no animal deities, nor was anything in creation deified (such as the sun or moon). Humanity are not created as slaves or from the carcass of a fight between gods. Rather humanity is the animated image-idol, the icon, of Yahweh, placed within the temple, imbued with power and authority to re-present God’s sovereign presence to the creation.

So tselm is used because it is loaded with implications about the nature and purpose of humanity.

Here is the powerpoint

Origins 8 – Ears to hear, eyes to see

What is man(kind) that you are mindful of him?

We began with a very brief look at what is an idol from a biblical perspective rather than how we have changed it’s meaning. I stressed that God forbids idolatry. Next was a quick trip into 21st century image-saturation contrasting the ease with which we create images to the expense and difficulty that was required back in history.

From here we girded our loins and did a word study on the Hebrew words behind ‘likeness’ and ‘image’ in Genesis 1:26-28. Looking at a pile of references from the Old Testament we were able to draw some conclusions about what the Hebrew authors of Genesis were expressing by their use of ‘likeness and image’. Image and likeness are physical, visual, concrete terms. They refer to the whole person and not to just an aspect such as intelligence. The word for ‘image’ is used to refer to humanity in creation (and Adam and Eve’s first child) and (shockingly) almost exclusive to a pagan idols. Therefore we are left to conclude that in some senses we are God’s image-idol.

But what does that mean? It just sounds wrong. We will certainly unpack this in upcoming sessions. For now just to say – we are not God(s) and neither does God worship us. To be human is more wonderful than we realise it seems to me. As one of my lecturers put it:

To liken humanity to a statue of a god is either dangerously careless or deliberate and profound

Crispin Fletcher-Louis – Creation and Worship, Lecture notes

Here is the powerpoint

Origins 5 – What is man(kind) that you are mindful of him?

As it was in the beginning

In Session 2 we focused on the translation of the notoriously difficult verse 1 -especially that pesky first word. Just how do you translate ” In beginning created God…” – — yes, no “the” in the first clause.

Then we looked at what an alternative translation would be:

When God began to create the heavens and the earth,
the earth was formless and empty,
darkness was over the surface of the deep,
and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
And (then) God said ‘let there be light…’

Safaria amongst others

Suggesting that Genesis 1 is NOT the first chapter of the story after all – though we still said that God created everything as per John 1 of course.

Next it was off to a deeper look at “tohu and vabohu” again, this time to see how the words were used elsewhere in the Hebrew bible. We ended with a quick discussion of just what does it mean to be created in God’s image and likeness and why is idolatry such a big no no.

Here are the powerpoints

Origins 3 – In beginning, creatio ex niliho

Origins 4- Positive and negative in gen 1vs2

What was creation?

In the first session of our ‘Origins’ course we looked at a few ideas around how we learn. After that we began to look at the initial state of play as Genesis 1 kicks off with ‘formless and void’. This is the turned around completely as under the direction of Yahweh Elohim the Artisan as earth takes on structure and is filled with life. Beautiful.

Lots of positive feedback after this session – I was especially happy to hear such a buzz from the four discussion groups – I thought they might sit there in silence not discussing. Not a bit of it!

There were also some really good questions asked – and, as predicted, some questions had no easy answers.

Can’t wait to move into the next topic.

Powerpoints

Origins 1 – Intro and scene setting

Origins 2 – What was creation?