The Meaning of Creation: Genesis and Modern Science [Paperback]

Conrad Hyers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 19, 1984

Conrad Hyers offers a welcome respite from the counter-productive effects of extremism that surround the creation issue. Focusing on the creation texts from the book of Genesis, Hyers interprets the biblical account in light of its relationship to its culture, context, and purpose.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Conrad Hyers is an American writer, lecturer, and ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Before his retirement he was Professor of Religion at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota.

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press (January 19, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804201250
• ISBN-13: 978-0804201254
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #592,875 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Probably the finest book ever written on this topic, September 3, 2001

By 

P. Jones (TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Meaning of Creation: Genesis and Modern Science (Paperback)

Probably the finest book ever written on this topic. Hyers points out the hermeneutical dilemmas associated with the reading of the Genesis creation accounts. The Creation/Evolution controversy should never have arrived at a scientific level, and Hyers wants his audience to understand why. This well written work separates itself from the hodgepodge of works that have come out the past several years attempting to integrate theology and science. Hyers' work does not add another trumpet to that redundant performance. Rather, he looks at the literary genre and how it is being violated by the literalists. He also examines how our modern literalistic culture places a harmful interpretive shade over our eyes as we read ancient texts written during a time rich with allegory. And he explains the neglect of authorial intent in the Genesis creation accounts--texts which appear to be more of a response to one or both of the ancient cosmologies neighboring the Hebrews.

Hyers is sensitive to those who cling to traditional interpretations of the creation accounts in Genesis, and is careful not to insult the intelligence of anyone. Hyers is a conservative theologian, but his definition of conservative is to conserve the original meaning of the text, as opposed to conserving a traditional interpretation of the text.

While the copyright date is 1984, don't let the older date make the book appear to be irrelevant to a resurging 21-century topic.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, the religious answer to "creation science", November 1, 1999

By 

Mike Anglin ([e-mail]) (Minneapolis, MN (USA)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Meaning of Creation: Genesis and Modern Science (Paperback)

Scientists have argued for a long time that "scientific creationism" has no scientific basis. Conrad Hyers argues convincingly that it likewise has no Biblical basis. This book is not about science, and its aim is to show that Genesis is not about science either. The first two chapters concern the errors of reading Genesis as a scientific or historical account. The next section lucidly discusses the historical and theological background of the Jews, and how a creation story (actually, two stories) came to be written. Several chapters examine the theological points of Genesis, and how the style, symbolism, and numerology further the goals of the creation story. One particularly interesting part explains how the organization of Genesis 1 mimics that of the Gilgamesh epic in order to refute its polytheistic content.

Bible literalists demand a choice between conventional science and religion. Hyers ably demonstrates that this is a false dichotomy. He is one of the first to debate creationism on its own turf, the field of theology. I bought "The Meaning of Creation" ten years ago, after hearing a lecture by Prof. Hyers at Gustavus Adolphus College, where he chairs the Religion Department. He is a fluent speaker as well as a lucid writer. Scientists especially will find this small (200pp) book a helpful insight into mainstream religious thinking on a controversial subject that has so often been distorted by extremists of both camps.

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars towards a exegetical solution in the creation evolution mess, February 9, 2003

By 

R. M. Williams "just an avid reader" (tucson, arizona USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Meaning of Creation: Genesis and Modern Science (Paperback)

it is one of those drop everything and read now type of books. very much appropriate to a discussion of gen 1 and 2, and the extended discussion of creation evolution, with attention to the relationship of religion and science.

his thesis is that the first two chapters of genesis are polemic against the neighboring cultures of the hebrews. simply put genesis has nothing to do with modern science at all. we impose our catagories of thought, but more importantly we impose what we want to hear onto these chapters.

just a few quotes will help:
it is quite doubtful that these texts have waited in obscurity through the millennia for their hidden meanings to be revealed by modern science. it is at least a good possibility that the "real meaning" was understood by the authors themselves. pg 3

and in response to henry morris who wrote "the creation account is clear, definite, sequential and matter-of-fact, giving evey appearance of straightforward historical narrative"

---hyers writes on pg 23 "this may indeed be the way things appear to certain modern interpreters at considerable remove from the context in which the texts were written, living in an age so dominated by scientific and historical modes of thought. It may also be the way things appear to those for whom modern science and historiography offer the criteria by which religious statements are to be understood and judged to be true or false. Yet it is by no means obvious that this represents the literary form or religious concern of the Genesis writers"

the problem of the debate over origins from genesis is like pogo said in the widely quoted cartoon "we have met the enemy and he is US".
the reason we have so much smoke over genesis is that we forgot the first rule of hermenutics. approach the text as the first readers did, with their assumptions, their world and life view. with the issues they were interested in understanding in the forefront. NOT OURS. the extension of scripture to all times and ages is done after this culture and historic criticism. not before.

therefore genesis is a religious not a scientific document addressed to the questions of that time. polytheism, and sacralization of the physical world. this is in alignment with _battle for god_ by karen armstrong and her analysis of logos and mythos. our problem is that we so depreciate mythos as being NOT TRUE that we very much miss the point of the first two chapters of Genesis....