Genesis: nothing left to the imagination
Robert Crumb talks about his new comic-strip Genesis, (which I previously blogged here) saying that it is a multi-layered text, full of imaginative possibilities. Nick Baines, Bishop of Croydon says on the piece that it teases the imagination. I’m not sure that Crumb’s work teases so much as leaves nothing to the imagination, but I like Baines’s other comment – that in Church congregations listen to these outrageous stories, followed by the words “This is the word of the Lord”. The scripted response, which congregations usually trot out obediently, is “Thanks be to God”, but like Mr Bains, I’m often left thinking that a more appropriate reaction would be “WHAAAAT???“Hell fire and brimstone, incest and rape, women and children treated worse than animals… “THis is the Word of the Lord” should most certainly be replaced in many instances by – “this is an outrageous story to our ears – what does the ancient text have to tell us about what they thought about God then, what we think now, why we still read it at all… “ Pretty often I edit our lectionary very liberally on the basis that the unthinkable, unimaginable horror stories in scripture should only be read in services where there is an adequate space to address them, and when it’s a read-sing-pray service, the readings have to be selected appropriately. That’s not at all the same thing as editing out the dodgy bits – it’s about choosing when and where they are read, with the possibility of addressing the strange and difficult readings.
Meantime, Crumb’s book is well worth adding to your collection of Bible versions. It’s on my Christmas wish list.
4 Responses to “Genesis: nothing left to the imagination”
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Maggi has kept a blog since September 2003, writing about theology and faith, the arts and literature, and a little about life and random nonsense...
In an increasingly secularised society few people have a good working knowledge of the Bible. Yet a great deal of our culture is built on stories or ideas that come from the Bible. Literature, art, music, language and even the fabric of our society - such as our justice system - are built on Christian concepts and biblical references. The Writing on the Wall provides a fascinating introduction to the Bible's best-known, and most influential, stories. Each chapter gives some background to the text of the Bible, and shows how the stories have become enmeshed in Western culture. Adam and Eve, the ten plagues of Egypt, The Prodigal Son and Mary Magdalene all feature - along with how the Bible has influenced everyone from Shakespeare to Monty Python, and Caravaggio to Banksy. 
Giving It Up explores the Lenten idea of 'giving up', taking it beyond the traditional idea of simply abstaining from something, and suggesting instead that what we need to give up is our existing ideas about God. With a daily readings for each day of Lent, from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, it follows the heroes of the Bible who had to give up their own too-small ideas about God.
This is Maggi’s bestselling book of daily readings for each day of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. Advent is the beginning of the Church year, and marks the anticipation of the coming Messiah. These readings explore how beginnings and endings in our own lives are illuminated by the different Gospel narratives of Christ's coming.
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I remember sitting at Morning Prayer in an Oxford parish, and the priest reading that delightful passage from 2 Peter about all the punishments due to heretics and wicked men. This was 2 days before Christmas, of all times. The priest reading the passage said, in closing the reading, ‘This, believe it or not, is the Word of the Lord.’
Maggi, I blogged on this a couple of weeks ago at http://nickbaines.wordpress.com/2009/10/18/the-genesis-of-a-crumb/.
I’ve been feeling bad all week for ignoring one reading and working instead with the Psalm for the day. This helps. Thanks Maggi,
steve
http://www.emergentkiwi.org.nz
go for it, steve! you have good instincts