The Birth, the Curse and the Greening of Earth: An Ecological Reading of Genesis 1-11

ISBN-13: 9781907534195 / Angielski / Twarda / 2011 / 154 str.

Norman Habel

Opis

Few people realize that the first character in the Bible (after the headline sentence of Genesis 1.1) is Earth. What if we read thecreation story and the primal myths of Genesis from the perspective ofthat key character, rather than from the anthropocentric perspective inwhich our culture has nurtured us?This is the project of Norman Habel's commentary, resisting the longhistory in Western culture of devaluing, exploiting, oppressing andendangering the Earth. Earth in Genesis first appears wrapped in theprimal waters, like an embryo waiting to be born. On the third day ofcreation it is actually born and comes into existence with its greenvegetation as a habitat for life of all kinds.It is hardly a moment before Earth is damaged by human sin andsuffers a divine curse, and then must cry out for justice for the bloodof Abel it has been compelled to drink. It is an even greater curse whenEarth, together with almost all life on Earth, comes near to totalannihilation at the Flood. Has Earth brought this fate upon itself, or isit the innocent victim of human wrongdoing?Genesis has God regretting the threat to Earth and its children that theFlood has brought, and vowing to green Earth again, remove the curse, restore the seasons and make a personal covenant of assurance withEarth and its creatures.