RECRUITING THE ANCIENTS FOR THE CREATION DEBATE, by Andrew J. Brown

A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance 

by Kirsten Birkett  

 

About the Author 

Andrew J. Brown is lecturer in Old Testament and Hebrew at Melbourne School of Theology. He has previously served as a Baptist minister. 

 

Contents  

1. The Problem and the Purpose of This Book  
2. Early Alexandrian Interpretation of Genesis 1 
3. The Millennial Roots of the World-Week Approach to Genesis 1 
4. The World-Week Scheme Historicized in Augustine 
5. Three Patristic Literal Interpretations of the Creation Week  
6. Basil’s Borderlands Creation and His Hexaemeral Disciples 
7. Augustine’s Instantaneous Creation 
8. The Middle Ages from Bede to Aquinas 
9. Martin Luther’s Straightforward Creation 
10. John Calvin’s Space of Six Days 
11. From the Westminster Confession to John Wesley 
12. On Revisiting, Not Recruiting, the Ancients  

 

General Summary

An examination of historical figures typically recruited in the debates over interpretation of the six days of creation, demonstrating how modern debates misread or superficially read such figures. 

 

The Problem and the Purpose of This Book

The ancients are often cited in debates about Christianity and science. In evangelicalism generally, the past is being retrieved theologically and hermeneutically. But it is possible to “recruit ancient figures superficially, selectively, or carelessly,” and this is “disappointingly common” in creation debates. A foreground issue is the literal or nonliteral creation week, and ancients are recruited on both sides. 

Appeal to authority is not wrong but we must use history responsibly. The creation debate is often unaware of principles of historiography and reception history; we must also take into account intellectual history and history of ideas. Historical context is critical.

This book aims to judge which ancient Christian thinkers (or texts) are precedents for modern interpretations of Genesis; where modern readers go wrong in reading ancients; and which interpretations of Genesis best survive. 

 

Early Alexandrian Interpretation of Genesis 1

Creation themes can be traced through the OT. Exodus shows the correspondence between creation events and the tabernacle, and the Sabbath commands recall creation. Intertestamental literature expands the biblical text. NT authors draw on creation themes e.g., in teaching about marriage, image, eschatology, and Sabbath. Gospel genealogies reuse creation terminology, but the timescale is not mentioned.

Philo of Alexandria wrote about a universe of multi-layered reality with connections between layers. The biblical text “was expected to refer beyond its immediate historical situation to other important realities.” Philo held that creation did not happen in time; the creation week is a (Platonic) “ideal schema” separate from physical creation. 

Clement adopts Philo’s “timeless creation”; Origen offers a “serious precedent for a figurative interpretation of the creation days” but is strongly bound to a Neoplatonist worldview. Other Alexandrians (e.g., Hilary) spread similar ideas – instantaneous creation – to the West, although his main point was God’s single plan prior to creation. . . .

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