Karen Armstrong's In the Beginning is a depressing performance all
around. It's hard to believe that
the same writer who gave us A History of God, that brilliant and multifaceted
introduction to Western monotheism, could have penned this weak and predictable
"new interpretation" of Genesis. Rather than interpretation, In the Beginning is an exercise in interpolation. The author inserts a vaguely
progressive ethics in the interstices she can find in the ancient text of
Genesis. The results are not
convincing and, as far as I'm concerned, they're not progressive either.
What is the
intent behind this kind of work?
My best guess is that Armstrong is here trying to make the first book of
the biblical canon "relevant" for modern readers. She's trying to demonstrate how the
stories in Genesis dramatize many of the same "issues" that
(supposedly) concern us.
Unfortunately Armstrong does this by betraying Genesis. Her interpretations are not adequate to
an ancient Semitic scripture.
Certainly a scholar as widely read as Armstrong knows very well how
anachronistic Noah and Abraham and Sarah and Jacob appear in the outfits she
puts on them. So why has she
undertaken such a dressing up? For
whose benefit?
The texts
that make up Genesis strike us by their radical otherness, their
inconsistencies and uncanny strength (the paradox of their
inconsistencies/strength). There
is powerful artistry both in the writing of Genesis and in the editing that
established its final biblical form.
By trying to domesticate the book the way Armstrong does--by
schematizing family relations according to modern psychologies of trauma, by
submitting the ancient writers' representations of God to modern political
ethics--Armstrong offers us an essay unworthy of its subject. What is worthwhile in her book is not
really new, and most of what is new is unpersuasive as interpretation.
Read A History of God, which demonstrates Armstrong's great powers as a teacher
and writer. But if you're
interested in interpretation of the book of Genesis, look elsewhere. Robert Alter's excellent edition of the
text would be a good place to start.
Eric Mader
October 2004
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Armstrong's book at Amazon.com: In the Beginning
Check Armstrong's A History of God
Check Robert Alter's Genesis: Translation and Commentary
On Armstrong's A History
of God see
also:
http://www.necessaryprose.com/armstrong.htm
Email: inthemargins03@hotmail.com
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This page is at
http://www.necessaryprose.com/