In the Beginning God: Creation, Culture, and the Spiritual Life
Marva J. Dawn
Paperback: 124 pages
Publisher: IVP Books
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0830837078
ISBN-13: 978-0830837076
Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
Buy Here: Amazon.com
Thanks to Adrianna Wright and IVP Press for sending me a copy to review!

Marva J. Dawn, whether you tend to agree with her or not, is always a refreshing read for me. She never fails to point the reader back to worship. Her newest book, In the Beginning, God is no different.

Marva Dawn’s look at Genesis 1 and 2 is quite different than the usual fare. She hopes to move us behind the usual creation debate, and really get into the text, which she does so by asking several introductory questions. Far too often, says Dawn, Christians jump immediately to questions such as “how does this apply to me?” or “How will I live out this text?” pointing out that this turns the focus away from God to us (pg. 10). It’s not that these questions are not important—they are—but they are not the ones of primary importance. When they are primary they are, in effect, narcissistic. Marva Dawn suggests in their place we should be asking questions such as “What is God doing in this text?” and “What is God revealing about one or all of the Triune Persons in this passage?” (ibid.)

This movement away from ourselves and to God as priority is itself an act of worshipful reading of the text. This is something that we tend to forget, and I for one am thankful that Marva Dawn has gently pushed us back in this direction. This idea absolutely permeates the book, and can be seen throughout as Marva’s meditations on the creation narratives lead, Pauline like, to bursts of praise (cf. Romans 11:33-36). We must recapture this sense of awe as we read God’s word.

This idea of worship informs the rest of the book, as Dawn begins to describe the creation accounts in terms that may seem somewhat surprising to readers who demand scientific readings of the text: liturgy. She describes liturgy as “simply to include ways for the attendees to be involved” and “an ordering, so that the people know how to participate” (pg 20). To read Genesis 1:1-2:3 as liturgy then is to “catch [its] rhythm and begin to chime in on the refrains in our minds” (pg 21). The refrains are “And God said,” “and it was so,” “and God saw that it was good,” and “and there was evening and there was morning, the first [or whichever] day” (pg 21). There is something to be said about this view. It allows the creation narrative to be a form of poetry as many have assumed, but without taking on the form of typical poetry as so many have pointed out. As liturgy, it urges us to join into creative act as observers and worshippers.

As we read through the lens of worship, we “become what we worship” as the title of Greg Beale’s book so aptly states. She quotes Thomas Merton, “your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire” and “To be an acorn is to have a taste for being an oak tree” (pg 26).

Chapter 5, The First Six Days, takes back to the theme of reading the first creation narrative as liturgy. For those of you wondering what this would be like, I have posted her thoughts of each creation day in six separate posts which you can find here. The rest of the book looks at the various aspects of creation, and how it should inform how we live. This is Marva Dawn’s corrective of the “how do I apply this” question as mentioned above. We learn to apply it as we begin to ask questions such as “what is God doing here,” then, as we take what we learn about God to Him in worship, by His grace and His Spirit, we start to become more like Him.

As we see God create, we learn that he takes great delight in his image-bearers—us—primarily and also his creation. Therefore, we too should take great delight in these things, which would involve a hunger and love for justice and the preservation of God’s image in people, as well as a care for the created world, including (as much as many American Christians would hate to admit) the ecological world of plants and animals. As we become more like God we will care about and for the things that he cares about and for. A lot of Christians are really good at getting the part about caring for the image of God in people right, but neglect that God also cares for the rest of his creation as well. There can, and ought to be, debate on to what degree of course, but we cannot deny that there is, in fact, some degree. This reading of Genesis 1 and 2 also plays into sexuality and the demand for purity. The design for relationships in the garden of eden is normative. Our culture is “sexually toxic” (pg 83). She says:

“How can young persons (or older adults, for that matter) keep choosing purity, celibacy, and sexual faithfulness when they are bombarded constantly in our poisoned society by crass advertisements with immodestly dressed models, sexually explicit movies, grossly overt genital language in text messages and music, and pornographaic magazines and sites on the web?” (pg 83).

We must, of course, get back to God’s design. “It seems to me that our world is desperate for what the Christian community has to teach about godly sexual character.” (ibid.)

The book finishes out with a discussion on sin, the fall, and God’s promise for a savior (chapters 15-18). As I said before, whether you agree or disagree with her, Marva Dawn is always a refreshing read. Over all, I am inclined to agree with much of what is stated in the book, and find the liturgical reading to be a helpful way of reading the text of Genesis 1-2, to get beyond the questions that bog down contemporary readings, and to be ushered into participating in the cosmic drama of creation as an outside observer and worshipper. I want to join in the refrains, “it is good! it is very good!” as the triune God paints the picture of his sovereign rule over his creation.

This book shines best, as Marva Dawn typically does, when she is talking about the practices and rhythms of the Christian life. This is what she is known for and what she does best and “In the Beginning, God” continues in that line. There are some concerns however. My concerns are usually in Marva Dawn’s exegesis, where she can tend to bend in a direction that supports her thoughts.

One example of this is on pages 45 to 46, where she is arguing for environmental care. I should add that I absolutely agree with her in this aspect, but I disagree with how she gets there. She mentions that in the phrase “have dominion over,” the phrase “over” represents the Hebrew word/letter bet or beth as she pronounces it. She also mentions that this preposition is sometimes translated “with,” and that it should be translated as such here. Now, it’s a possibility that it should be translated as “with” here, but not simply because “with” is a possible translation of ב (bet). This is an exegetical fallacy where you assume that a word carries its entire semantic range into a context. The context seems to lend itself more to the idea of “over” rather than “with.” It’s not that we are equal with animals, as the “with” would suggest, but that we as image-bearers have dominion over them. The ecological question, then, is what does it mean to utilize Christ-glorifying dominion? What does it mean for God to have dominion over us? How does he exercise it? And in what ways are we to reflect that as stewards of God’s creation? Ironically, the following section title is entitled “A Stronger Argument.”

Another point of exegetical disagreement is over original sin. Marva Dawn rejects the usual definition, instead arguing that it is

“not that Adam and Eve sinned and so everyone bears the blame for that sin, but that we all don’t settle for simply being in God’s image. We all continue corrupting our likeness to God by coveting equality with him. We all want to be gods in our own lives” (pg 97).

Now, the last point is absolutely true–we continue to reenact the fall with every sin, declaring that we are our own authority. That is not the concept of original sin however. The concept of original sin as articulated through the centuries is found in Romans 5:12 and following, and 1 Corinthians 15:22. Unfortunately, Marva Dawn never defends her assertion of what original sin is, so we have no idea as to how she formulated her view.

Despite the exegetical differences that creep in, Marva Dawn has given us yet another important book on looking at how the scripture narrative should form and shape us, and not the other way around. The way that this is possible, however, is not by our own determination and merit, but by God’s grace as worship and adore him.

You can purchase Marva J. Dawn’s book In the Beginning, God: Creation, Culture, and the Spiritual Life at Amazon.com