The way of imagination

·        What is at stake in our understanding of Genesis chapter 1? o    The “inspiration” of Scripture? §   The trustworthiness/accuracy of the Bible? o    2 equal and opposite errors to avoid in interpreting Gn. 1 ( we “know” what happened ) §   We “know” that Gn. 1 tells us exactly how the universe came into existence and that modern scientific theories are nonsense.  ·         (This error assumes extra-biblical categories of thought; we assume that the Bible gives us the kind of information that modernity tells us we need to have in order to be confident that what we are affirming is true) §   We “know” that modern cosmology tells us exactly how the universe came into existence and that the Genesis story is nonsense.  ·         (modern cosmological theories and Gn. 1 are both stories; scientists must assume the physical laws of the universe as they study the universe’s origins; they cannot account for the laws themselves or explain how they came into being, t

This mystery .  Today is Day 6 of Advent, the season where we are preparing to celebrate the central mystery of our Christian faith – the moment when God became man, the moment of the incarnation.  Christmas is the time of year when we are reminded that what sets us apart – as Christians – from all other religious believers is the strange series of stories that begins with what we celebrate today.  The one thing, above all, that makes Christianity unique among all the religions of the world is the fact that we never speak about God without also speaking about a human being – Jesus of Nazareth.  And we can’t speak about Jesus without speaking of his mother – Mary of Nazareth.  And we can’t speak of Mary without speaking of how God prepared her to be the theotokos – the “God-bearer”.  That the Creator would become a man, that God would have a mother – these are strange ideas, they might even strike us as being impossible .  It might be helpful for us to ponder on these mysteriou