Seven Days That Divide the World: The Beginning According to Genesis and Science (10th Anniversary Edition)

by John C. Lennox

Overview

Now revised and updated--John Lennox's acclaimed method of reading and interpreting the first chapters of Genesis without discounting either science or Scripture.

What did the writer of Genesis mean by "the first day?" Are the seven days in Genesis 1 a literal week or a series of time periods? If I believe that the earth is 4.5 billion years old as cosmologists believe, am I denying the authority of Scripture?

With examples from history, a brief but thorough exploration of the major interpretations, and a look into the particular significance of the creation of human beings, Lennox suggests that Christians can heed modern scientific knowledge while staying faithful to the biblical narrative. He moves beyond a simple response to the controversy, insisting that Genesis teaches us far more about the God of Jesus Christ and about God's intention for creation than it does about the age of the earth.

With this book, Lennox offers a careful and accessible introduction to a scientifically-savvy, theologically-astute, and Scripturally faithful interpretation of Genesis.

Since its publication in 2011, this book has enabled many readers to see that the major controversy with which it engages can be resolved without compromising commitment to the authority of Scripture. In this newly revised and expanded edition, John clarifies his arguments, responds to comments and critiques of the past decade since its first publication. In particular, he describes some of the history up to modern times of Jewish scholarly interpretation of the Genesis creation narrative as well as spelling out in more detail the breadth of views in the Great Tradition of interpretation due to the early Church Fathers. He shows that, contrary to what many people think, much of the difficulty with understanding the biblical texts does not arise from modern science but from attempting to elucidate the texts in their own right.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780310127826
Publisher:	Zondervan
Publication date:	10/12/2021
Sold by:	HarperCollins Publishing
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	47,232
File size:	788 KB

About the Author

John C. Lennox (MA MMath. MA (Bioethics) PhD, DPhil, DSc, FISSR) is Professor of Mathematics (Emeritus) at the University of Oxford and (Emeritus) Fellow in Mathematics and the Philosophy of Science at Green Templeton College, Oxford. He is author of a number of books on the interface between science, philosophy, and theology, including, God and Stephen Hawking, Determined to Believe, Can Science Explain Everything? and Cosmic Chemistry: Do God and Science Mix? Prof. Lennox is a widely recognized public intellectual who has engaged in numerous debates with public figures such as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Michael Ruse, and Peter Atkins on questions at the interface of science, philosophy, and religion.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Second Edition xi

Acknowledgements xiii

Introduction 1

1 But Does It Move? 7

A Lesson from History

2 But Does It Move? 15

A Lesson about Scripture

3 But Is It Old? 39

The Days of Creation

4 Human Beings 95

A Special Creation?

5 The Message of Genesis 1 127

Appendices

Appendix A A Brief Background to Genesis 159

Appendix B The Beginning according to Genesis and Science 171

Appendix C Two Accounts of Creation? 179

Appendix D Theistic Evolution and the God of the Gaps 185

General Index 221