Culture-Making: An Obligatory Disagreement

by Jul 2, 2009Books, Culture

Picture 2.png

Andy Crouch’s Culture-Making has yielded some treasures of insight, helping me make something of my cultural and physical world (“making something of the world,” in both of its possible senses, is his helpful definition of “culture”). But I have to disagree with his take on the historicity of the Genesis accounts.

American evangelicalism’s hunger for cultural acceptance—a hunger Crouch rightly criticizes elsewhere in this book—has left it terribly vulnerable to the power of prevailing cultural presuppositions. Biological macro-evolution is one of those presuppositions, and its pressure has produced one small, awkward chapter—an “interlude,” Crouch calls it—which calls the Bible into question. Here’s an excerpt:

I am not sure the biblical writers would have been terribly troubled by the failings of Genesis 1–11 as literal cosmological history…. [Genesis 1–11] are less a finely documented history than a story that invites our trust…. If there is some way, in the new heavens and new earth, to have access to the whole story of this wonderful broken universe, I will not be surprised if I find that the biblical authors missed some of the details about how God created the universe and the human race. But I am confident I will not feel in any way deceived by them—indeed, I believe I will be unspeakably grateful that, prompted by the Holy Spirit, they told stories that made the best possible sense of the world.” (118, 120)

A faithful reading of the early chapters of Genesis—and of the other portions of Scripture which regularly rely on them—simply does not allow for Crouch’s view. I side rather with Crouch’s insight from this very interlude: “The most important things in our life are learned by trust, not by deduction from experiment.” (120) The vast majority of macro-evolution’s adherents have never done a serious study of the evidence. Neither have I. Most of us will never have that capacity. What little we could manage would fall far short of scientific rigor. Instead we all choose what we consider to be a reliable authority—or that Authority chooses us!

I don’t deny that the facts support my case, only that anyone can come to the facts without prior faith commitments that will exercise some considerable influence over what the facts will say.

Read More 

A Few Quotes from The Genesis of Gender by Abigail Favale

The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory by Abigail Rine Favale My rating: 4 of 5 stars Well written, provocatively helpful—provocative because she was schooled in evangelicalism (which makes her like me) and in feminist theory (which makes her not like me)—and is...

Review: Comanche Empire

The Comanche Empire by Pekka Hämäläinen This excellent book does what modern history is supposed to do nowadays: it gives a voice to the voiceless and the marginalized; it gives agency to the victims. And yet you can’t always predict what will happen when you go...

Answering a Question about Political Philosophy

A friend asked me for my thinking—and my reading recommendations—on Christian political philosophy. I was pretty frank and open. I don't hold myself up as a master of the topic. I welcome input from others here. What should I read? What should my friend read? My...

Review: Means of Ascent

Means of Ascent by Robert A. CaroMy rating: 5 of 5 stars This book is positively monumental. How does Caro do it? Well, I know how he does it. I read his book on the topic. He does it with a lot of hard and humble work (and some excellent help from his wife). I was...

Leave a comment.

0 Comments