SCIENCE AND CREATION: A COMPLEX RELATIONSHIP

Creation is a major theological theme in the Bible, with many diverse strands and layers of meaning, but we have seen that modern science only impacts them on a surprisingly superficial level. While we can pinpoint traces of an ancient scientific view in the texts which is clearly superseded in our modern perspective, yet it serves wider theological aims that are still relevant. In other words, the fact that the Bible's creation texts are drastically outdated from a scientific point of view has not invalidated their various portraits of the relationship between God and creation; indeed, modern science can say very little directly about this relationship. Furthermore, against the reductionist tendencies of science, we found that the Bible takes a much more expansive approach. Its creation texts can rarely be pinned down to a single level of meaning, a single interpretation, or a single explanation, and certainly not an explanation in terms of physical reality alone. The fact that we described a number of very different types of creation text existing alongside each other, some of which, for instance, spoke of creation in mythological terms while others spoke of divine Wisdom, points to the Bible's basic “multiculturalism”.

On the other hand, modern science has rendered a service to the Bible's creation texts by indicating that some long-standing interpretations need to be re-assessed. The obvious case in point is the traditional Western Christian reading of Genesis 2–3, which sees it as the story of the Fall (Chapter 7).