Saturday, 17 June 2006

Theology podcast: a biblical sketch of creation

I have just added a new podcast. It’s a brief sketch of the development of creation-theology in the Old and New Testaments (based on some lectures I recently gave on the doctrine of creation). You can listen to it here, or you can get the podcast feed.

I apologise for trailing off mid-sentence at the end of the broadcast, but I was staring absent-mindedly out the window, and I just ran out of things to....

3 Comments:

Chris Tilling said...

Thanks for this fascinating and helpful podcast, Ben.

At one point you say (something like): ‘by the time of the later NT writings, the early Christians had already come to see Christ having a special role in creation’ - and then go on to mention Colossians 1.

Whether Colossians was written by Paul or not (I personally think the evidence is pretty balanced on this one) it would probably be a stretch to call it a ‘later NT writing’, an honour I’d reserve for the pastorals, the ‘catholic letters’ (esp. the Petrines), and the writings of the Johannine school.

As early as the 50’s Paul could write 1 Cor 8:6 – a passage that associates Christ with the act of creation. There is a lot of confused material on this verse, but to my mind the best is Bauckham’s analysis – especially in terms of the significance of the prepositions (i.e. he rather pleasantly doesn’t too quickly call it all ‘Wisdom Christology’). Cf. his God Crucified, his article on monotheism in Out of Egypt, and there is a web article on Paul’s Christology somewhere.

Uncle Les said...

Ben,

Very, very engaging. I was particularly stimulated by the suggestion that the creation story for Israel really began with the Exodus event. The idea that the exodus is foundational to Israel's faith is very interesting.

I am still struggling with the idea that the creation story is demythologized in the Exodus event.

If we discard the Creation narratives on what basis do we account for the entry of sin into the world?

Anonymous said...

If we discard the Creation narratives on what basis do we account for the entry of sin into the world?

No differently: God gives humanity choice; humanity chooses to sin.

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