My image.
My FairMormon presentation reiterated parts of two previous papers I have presented. That text should be online soon (as I understand.) Below I offer the very rough presentation text from the two previous papers.
The society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology paper, with lots of my raw material. LINK.
My MSH paper,”Science, Scripture, And Secularism: Rethinking some Inherited Assumptions.” LINK
Below are some books I would recommend. (These are, of course, not LDS, not approved by the Church, I have some disagreements, etc., but generally still good to read.)
In general, for presuppositions, see Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes.
The intellectual history of creationism, evolution, and the “modern synthesis”
- Ronald Numbers, The Creationists
- My article here and follow-up here on the history of creationism, Genesis, and Seventh-day Adventists like Ben Carson.
- Bowler, Evolution: The History of an Idea
- Larsen, Summer for the Gods and Evolution: the Remarkable History of a Scientific Idea.
- Stott, Darwin’s Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution
- A large, general list.
Cosmology in the Hebrew Bible
- Greenwood, Scripture and Cosmology: Reading the Bible Between the Ancient World and Modern Science
- Parry, The Biblical Cosmos: A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Weird and Wonderful World of the Bible.
- John Walton, The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate (IVP Academic, 2009)
- A technical version was published as Genesis 1 as Ancient Cosmology (Eisenbrauns, 2011).
- The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2-3 and the Human Origins Debate, with a contribution from N.T. Wright (IVP Academic, 2015)
On Genesis
See my post here.
For wrestling with the nature of scripture and the OT, I highly recommend
- Kenton Sparks, Sacred Word, Broken Word: Biblical Authority and the Dark Side of Scripture.
- The books of Peter Enns, especially Inspiration and Incarnation
- Schlimm, This Strange and Sacred Scripture
- Brettler, How to Read the Bible.
For Bibles and Study Bibles, see
- The “recommendations for personal study” section of my article here
- My post here (Old Testament specific)
- My post here (New Testament specific)
I was asked about a book in the Q&A, Friedman’s Who Wrote the Bible, which I recommend along with his The Bible with Sources Revealed. In that connection, I mentioned David Bokovoy’s book, Authoring the Old Testament, from Kofford Press.
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August 16, 2017 at 12:23 pm
I just finished Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes and Walton’s book on Genesis 1. They were excellent; thank you for the recommendations. Walton’s book was particularly valuable to me in that it pretty much put to rest any concerns I had about how to read it. In retrospect, I find it hard not to think “Oh, this is so obvious, why didn’t I see this before”. It also makes crystal clear how fallacious all the common readings really are.
I did find it intriguing that Dr. Walton still accepts the concept of creation ex nihilo, considering that he just demolished the readings that it’s based on. Are there other passages that creedal Christians rely on to support ex nihilo? Or is it simply a basic philosophical stance that comes about because of their worldview? Or is it that ex nihilo arose out of this reading and now it is a fundamental part of their worldview, bolstered by the philosophical arguments they’ve developed to defend it?