Arend J. Poelarends

Reading Genesis Well

Science & Faith

“This is a book to be read by theologians and scientists alike. Using C. S. Lewis as his guide, Collins brilliantly synthesizes ideas from modern linguistics to show what the much-debated opening chapters of Genesis do say and what they don’t. Taking these chapters of Genesis as the introduction to the big story of the Bible, meant to shape the worldview of ancient Israel and their heirs (the church), Collins credibly argues that interpreting these chapters as ancient science is misguided and rooted in the mistaken idea that scientific language is the most accurate and therefore the most truthful kind of discourse. I highly recommend this book to fellow scientists as it has deepened my own understanding of the frontiers of biblical scholarship, increased my appreciation for the complexity of textual interpretation, and invited me to develop a much more nuanced understanding of the features of Genesis 1–11 and their relation to science.”