‘In the Beginning’: Creation Through the Eyes of Faith and Art, by John Grondelski 

Join us for the next year as we make our way through the Old Testament. Despite the Second Vatican Council’s promotion of Scripture reading, many Catholics are still not as familiar with the Bible as they should be. That is likely doubly true when it comes to the Old Testament. In this series, we’ll focus on key events and persons in the Old Testament, discussing what they meant in their day and their further application in light of the New Testament. We’ll also see how those events (and their theology) were captured by our larger culture through examining a classical piece of art that illustrates the passage we are considering. Your questions and comments are always welcome in the comments section. 

Creation (Genesis 1)

Even secular people generally know something of the accounts of creation in Genesis 1-2. Whenever people hear the phrase, “In the beginning,” most instinctively revert to the first pages of the Bible.

Yet the accounts of creation are often misunderstood. Some people would dismiss them, claiming “science” or, specifically, “evolution” has disproven them. Others seem to adopt a defensive posture, insisting we need to take Genesis 1 literally. Each extreme generally alienates the other.

Catholics, however, are not bound to either. The Church teaches that when we read a biblical text, we also have to take into account what kind of genre, or type of writing it is, because that genre qualifies how the truth the text offers is being taught. This is not an evasion of hard issues or a diluting of Scripture. People regularly adapt how they read something in light of the genre it’s written in. You can read a police report of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (“just the facts, ma’am”), a historian’s account (the facts plus interpretation), or Jim Bishop’s The Day Lincoln Was Shot (a historical novel based on facts and interpretations but also adapted to make the story interest readers). The same event underlies all three, but all three read differently — and should be read differently — based on what kind of writing we’re reading. The same is true of the Bible.  …

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