Creation Stories: Fundamentalist And Contextualism

The author also addresses four themes to help the reader gain an understanding of the Christian world view which include creation, fall, redemption and consummation. Creation addresses the understanding of who humans are and how it relates to the world that we live in. The fall deals rebellion against God in the garden. Redemption speaks about the forgiveness of our sins that came through the savior of Jesus Christ. Finally Consummation pulls all three previous topics together and is the start of the integration at its core.

Let’s talk about the world about 2,000 years ago. It was a world where the mass of people were illiterate, taxes were extremely high, and the leaders would cheat and kill to feed their ever growing need for power. We all can relate to having a good storyteller in our lives, most were read to at night by their parents or are parents themselves that read to their children. What is the purpose of storytelling? It’s simple, comfort. A good story can ease your psychological unrest as well as offer a moral purpose. Sometimes you can even relate a story to your own life and offer an explanation to something you may be experiencing. This is exactly what the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were. They told their stories of Jesus to offer comfort to their people in a time when people could not pick up a story and read it themselves. It is part of human nature to have the desire for a good story. This paper will describe several events that were written by great storytellers in the bible.

Please review all your responses above and write a three-paragraph summation of the Christian worldview. In your brief summation, explain why it is important to know the story of the Bible and the common thread throughout the flags in the "Story of the Bible." Finally, how does your interpretation of life compare with the Christian Worldview reflected in the biblical story?

There are many different types of stories, some fairy tales and some are origin myths. Within each story there are different things not seen by just reading the story and not thinking about the deeper meaning behind it. Such as in origin myths there are cultural characteristics. Cultural characteristics are the beliefs of a culture in which its society is based off of. These cultural characteristics can be seen as a blend of beliefs that tie the people to the land around them. This is very evident when looking at the creation stories of ingenious people. Each culture has different characteristics. For example the indigenous creation stories called “The Earth on Turtle’s Back”, “When Grizzlies Walked Upright”, and the Navajo origin legend; all have characteristics of the Native American culture. Such as the Native American cultural characteristics that you should respect animals, nature, and elders. Those cultural characteristics are very evident throughout the first two stories. The third creation story has different cultural characteristics.

Too much of the Christian worldview’s attention is focused on reconciling the Bible with science and archaeological discoveries when it should be focused on redemption. The theme of the Bible could be summarized into four categories Creation,

All around the world there are stories and explanations as to what the beginning of time was like and what events led to the creation of earth and humanity. Different cultures from different areas have miraculously retained similar explanations and ideas. When multiple creation myths all share the same similar ideas, those ideas are called motifs, such as the creation of humanity using organic materials and in the beginning only chaos existing. People have yet to discover how cultures from completely different sides of the planet came to have such similar creation myths. Regarding creation myths, there are three motifs that I find to be more important: the idea of women being the reason of evil and punishment in the world, the idea of humans being created to care for the earth, and the idea that humans were created using organic materials.

The Motifs of Myths Have you ever wondered why myths are so similar to each other in the work that they do? Creation myths have many motifs. There are similar motifs, such as how they tried more than just once to create humans. Also how they are organized with their work. Lastly, how the gods never really stay on earth after they are done doing their job.

Throughout history, people have asked the ultimate question 'Where did it all begin?' For the majority of fundamentalist Christians, the belief is that the beginning of all life itself came from the supreme power of the Almighty Lord God. This point of view appears in the Bible, but can this be taken in a completely literal sense? Did one God create it all? Through examination of the literal and contextual meanings

Creation narratives have been around since the inception of man. A creation narrative is essentially a story that illustrates the beginning of time and how man came to proliferation. Along with the longevity of creation narratives, there is also a plethora of different styles and beliefs. In this essay, five creation narratives will be compared and contrasted, as well as giving you a brief summary of each one and the history behind them.

Telling stories in great detail, whether verbally, or written down, has always been a part of human civilization among various cultures. Thus by knowing what our ancestors honored or thought to be entertaining, while passing down cultural values, we too are able to learn from them and put such knowledge into a modern context. Particularly dealing with the Christian religion/holy bible that was forcibly spread throughout the world with colonialization, many stories interpreted from it produces various perspectives that seem to change as years pass, with bibles being revised/edited. Even translation from ancient languages into modern languages are not always perfect, so real misunderstandings will remain. However, as society evolves with scientific advancement and more people consider opposite viewpoints to justify or change theirs, evidence has been found that can disprove events in the bible and the bible as a whole. Others who have faith in the bible’s truthfulness also say some type of evidence can prove such questionable stories that preach Jesus was indeed on earth. Focusing on an excerpt/chapter from 2 distinctly different books, Christopher Hitchens critiques the faults of Christianity/religion, and Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart together, explain the true meaning of the 4 gospels and proclaim their belief in Jesus. All authors share their views on the bible/the value of narratives, and how that influences the reader’s interpretation of how the authors present their

Genesis 1-3 offered the very first outline of societal norms and therein introduced interpretations of norms related to family, gender, and sex. In our now-progressive society, the constraints of indubitable religion are removed and the differing interpretations of gender, sex, and family within religion are freely debated. Since the text of creation is divine and human logic cannot fully interpret or understand God’s word, there are copious, varying interpretations of the text. An essential starting point for interpreting the Bible is the understanding that misinterpretations are bound to happen. The difference in time and context alone is causation, let alone the factors of translation and transcription. Susan T. Foh and Carol Meyers, both graduates of Wellesley College, have very differing strategies regarding how to interpret divine texts. Meyers, a professor at Duke, directed attention towards the context in which the text was written. Since our societies are constantly in flux, the context from when the text was written is often different from the context in which predominant and accepted interpretations were fabricated. Foh’s strategy of interpreting and understanding the text is to utilize latter parts of the text, which were written with more recent contexts, in order to understand the text. Both of these methodologies set up the text to be re-interpreted, however, Foh’s methodology is more complete because it allows the text to speak for itself rather than bring in

By understanding the circles of context, we have a better and deeper understanding of the Bible

At first glance a story of the Bible may appear to be just that, a simple story; however, when one does more than simply read the story, there are a plethora of underlying meanings to be found. Reading the Bible in search of its meanings can sometimes be confusing, which results in several different interpretations and raises many arguments amongst the readers. When reading the Bible, “it is necessary to apply tools of critical reading to find out what God wants to communicate with us,” (Smith-Christopher, 28). In order to figure out what God wants to communicate, one must use hermeneutics, the science of interpretation. Hermeneutics helps to steer the Bible’s readers in the correct direction by presenting methods that serve to assist

One of the most discussed and debated phenomena in the history of education is that the hypothetical concept of evolution which can be considered as a theory of primordial history, moreover with the belief of creationism. Both have had an astounded impact in the framework of contemporary education should or should not be taught in the public classroom. Evolutionists and Creationists both have their reasons why their beliefs should be taught in the public classroom. The matter of the fact is that both of these are considered beliefs, things that are only backed by faith. Only faith, they are not supported by fact which makes them not a theory or hypothesis. Throughout history the debate between whether it is ethically right or wrong to teach these has been ongoing for too long and must come to a stop. These beliefs should not be taught in public schools due to the years of case law and disputed legislative actions, both of their belief systems, and the irrefutable facts that prove it morally wrong.

To elaborate, I recall the first week’s lecture venturing further on myths or misconceptions; it wasn’t until this point that I’d realized how deeply readers analyzed the text. For example, the creation story in Genesis 1 and 2, in my previous life I’d only known this as, “In the Beginning” and never understood this as two perspectives. However, when discussing in class and with the help of the “Guide”, I’d begun to realize the great contrast in the story of creation itself, along with the human personality of God applied in Genesis 2. Namely, when God speaks for the first time to man, “you are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but not you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” (Genesis 2: 16-17) This passage, along with the class discussion helped me realize the contrasts present in the Bible, whereas Genesis 1 was simply a generalization of creation.