Core readings to reshape assumptions

 

  • My syllabus of my material, which covers most of the topics we did in class.
  • Hyers, “Dinosaur Religion”
  • Marc Brettler, How to Read the (Jewish) Bible
  • E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O’Brien, Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible (IVP Books, 2012)
  • Enns, Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament
    • The three issues Enns (an Evangelical trained at Harvard) identifies with Evangelical approaches are also typical LDS stumbling blocks.
  • Barlow, Mormons and the Bible
  • Short video on the “warfare model” of science and religion which still mistakenly dominates modern thinking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLoZc5DIU9o
  • Matthew Schlimm, This Strange and Sacred Scripture: Wrestling with the Old Testament and Its Oddities (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2015).
  • Moberly, “ how should we read the early chapters of genesis”?

Source texts:

  • Bible Translation(s) and the Church
    • Spackman
    • McClellan
    • Sears
  • JPS Translation/ Jewish Study Bible
  • NRSV/ Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible
  • Robert Alter/Fox
  • Context of Scripture

LDS

Revelation?

Authorship of the Early Chapters

Divine Council

General

  • Steven L. Bridge, Getting the Old Testament— What It Meant to Them, What It Means to Us (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2009).
  • Walton, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible
  • Brettler, Enns, Harrington The Bible and the Believer: How to Read the Bible Critically & Religiously
    • A Jew, an Evangelical, and a Catholic— all well-trained scholars— in discussion about reading the Bible as a scholar and believer.
    • See also the BYU forums reprinted here, by jewish scholar James Kugel, Catholic scholar Candida Moss, Evangelical scholar Peter Enns, and several LDS scholars. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/sba/
  • Kenton Sparks, Ancient Texts for the Study of the Hebrew Bible: A Guide to the Background Literature

Commentaries

  • Walton NIVAC (Evangelical, context+modern application. Nontechnical)
  • Sarna, Genesis JPS Torah Commentary (Jewish)
  • Blenkinsopp, Creation, Un-creation, Re-Creation: A Discursive Commentary on Genesis 1-11 (Catholic)
  • Kathleen O’Connor, Genesis 1-25A (Smyth & Helwys)
  • Julie Galambush Reading Genesis: A Literary and Theological Commentary
  • Longman, How to Read Genesis
  • David Carr, Gen 1-11 (technical)
  • Wenham, Genesis 1-15 (Word Biblical Commentary, semi-technical, Protestant)
  • Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary, Genesis volume
    • This 9-volume series is the source of the condensed notes of the Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible

Early Chapters of Genesis

  • Genre

    • Halton, Genesis: History, Fiction or Neither?: Three Views on the Bible’s Earliest Chapters
      • Three authors present their views in conversation and debate with each other. (I side heavily with
    • Charles, Reading Genesis 1-2: An Evangelical Conversation
      • Like the above, but longer chapters and more authors in discussion.
    • Greenwood, Since the Beginning: Interpreting Genesis 1 and 2 Through the Ages

  • Cosmology

    • A Worldview Approach to Science and Scripture , Carol Hill (Kregel, 2019)
    • Scripture and Cosmology: Reading the Bible Between the Ancient World and Modern Science
    • The Biblical Cosmos: A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Weird and Wonderful World of the Bible.

  • Meaning/Background

    • Levenson, Creation and the Persistence of Evil: The Jewish Drama of Divine Omnipotence
    • Mark S. Smith, The Priestly Vision of Genesis 1
    • John Walton,
      • Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Origins and the Cosmology Debate
        • More technical version, Genesis 1 as Ancient Cosmology
    • Shinan and Zakovitch, From Gods to God: How the Bible Debunked, Supressed, or Changed Ancient Myths & Legends ( Jewish Publication Society, 2012)
Enuma Eliš?
Gen 2-3
  • Walton, The Lost world of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2-3 and the Human Origins Debate
  • Temples of the Ancient World: Ritual and Symbolism (various chapters)
  • Smith, The Genesis of Good and Evil: The Fall(out) and Original Sin in the Bible
  • Ziony Zevit, What really happened in the Garden of Eden?
  • Enns, the Evolution of Adam: What the Bible does and Doesn’t Say About Human Origins
  • Smith, Evolution and the Fall (anthology)
Later chapters

Modern (Mis)Understandings about Science, Scripture, & Religion, and where they came from

  • Understanding Scientific Theories of Origins: Cosmology, Geology, and Biology in Christian Perspective
  • Magisteria
  • Jeff Hardin, Ronald L. Numbers, and Ronald A. Binzley, eds., The Warfare between Science and Religion: The Idea That Wouldn’t Die (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018)
  • Ungureanu, Of Popes and Unicorns: Science, Christianity, and How the Conflict Thesis Fooled the World(Oxford University Press, 2021)
  • Peterson, Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes: The Strange Tale of How the Conflict of Science and Christianity was Written into History (Cascade Books, 2021)
  • Montgomery, The Rocks Don’t Lie
  • Numbers, Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion
    • C.f. Numbers, Newton’s Apple and Other Myths about Science
    • Numbers, When Science & Christianity Meet
    • Barry R. Bickmore and David A. Grandy, “Science as Storytelling,” BYU Studies Quarterly 53, no. 4 (2014): 37–60.