Genesis

I think the Genesis accounts demonstrate different conceptions of God, although trying to make a linear story from that is difficult for me.  I can see in the text roots from polytheistic people, people who understood their God to be quite physical and anthropomorphic, and people who saw their God’s power as more removed and perhaps privileged speech and naming.  I love that all of these roots are still in the text; in that sense I think it shows how people wanting to add “another way” in later years still honored the tradition before them and sought to avoid stamping out what we might consider contradictory.  That these early authors and collectors/protectors of these traditions sought to maintain the multiplicity of viewpoints is promising to me for the future of religion.  Perhaps we can understand and experience God in diverse, contradictory ways, and still come together in worship and community.