This attempt to see Genesis from a more ancient perspective has been fascinating. In fact it has been a real eye-opener for me. I always knew that I was making too many assumptions as I blithely read along, but I had no idea at all of how many possibilities lurk within the confines of these few hundred words.

The first few chapters of Genesis are full of meaning - yet, at the same time so effortlessly capable of jumping such huge cultural and linguistic barriers that I am left wondering. How much of the meaning that I perceive would have also been in the minds of the authors or of the first readers/hearers of this the foremost Mother of all Myths? How much of this meaning is purely a creation of my own?

John Doyle’s own startling reading  provides enough fodder for thought in itself. One can only hope that he will get round to publishing all of that in the book form that it so badly deserves!

Still, even though this has proved to be a long discussion, I have no sense that we have done other than scratch the surface of the mystery that is the True Myth of the genesis of our world and of ourselves.

Perhaps the richness of the Genesis story is that while we can dig into it in search of wisdom, we ALWAYS quite fail to subvert the account for our own political or cultural ownership. It is in fact the superb universality of the myth that invites each and every person to find therein their own grounding - and at the same time gently reminds us that our own particularities and little cultural pride is quite misplaced within the vision of a God who both cares for every part of her creation and who still gives us the freedom to disobey; a God who is never nationalistic; the God of justice who deals with each individual according to their own actions, and a God who while allowing us to make our mistakes will not abandon us however nasty, stupid, idiotic and unikonic we have been.

As always I overlay my own theology, and as always after putting forward my best foot, that foot is still stuck firmly in my own mouth.

Oh well, and a forgiving God too! 

Live to serve : Serve to live