Genesis As It Is Written: Contemporary Writers on Our First Stories - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060667060 ISBN 13: 9780060667061

Publisher: Harper San Francisco, 1996

Synopsis

Unlike any other stories in our culture, those in the book of Genesis confront us with provoking scenes of love and death, stark allegiances and subtle betrayals. At first glance, these narratives may seem straightforward, but as we reread and delve more deeply into them they begin to resonate with new meaning and they force us to reexamine our understanding of the social, ethical, and political landscape in which we live.
But in the beginning were the writers of the stories. Over the centuries, the morals and meanings that traditional readings have attached to the stories of Genesis effectively obscured the contemporary culture that produced them. Even experts and commentators have tended to miss the point: they all agree that Genesis is special, but the question of why the book was written has never properly addressed. Now, for the first time, twenty of our leading literary lights - novelists, poets, dramatists, and essayists - turn their attention to a particular story in Genesis and comment on it from the perspective of the storyteller. Together, they begin to discover the imaginative sensibilities of the ancient writer, as the very motivations of the biblical authors and their characters come to light. The result is a stunningly realized literary collection that will forever change they way you read the Bible's first stories.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper San Francisco
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060667060
• ISBN 13: 9780060667061
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 212
• Editor: Rosenberg David