- Paperback: 376 pages
- Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (Jan 1 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0802863256
- ISBN-13: 978-0802863256
- Product Dimensions: 2.3 x 1.5 x 0.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 522 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #473,236 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
The creation story stands as one of the most famous and familiar in Scripture. But, says best-selling author Robert Farrar Capon, most of us misconstrue it. The reason? We have fallen into the habit of reading Genesis the way we read all of Scripture - as a manual of religious instructions. To break this (bad) habit, Capon here offers a whimsical yet wonderfully fruitful approach - watching the Bible as a historical movie whose director is God. Though Capon does have fun with this concept, he's very serious about its liberating effects. "When you watch a movie," he says, "you never ask questions about whether the events depicted actually happened. Instead, you accept the history the director shows you on the screen." And, as Capon points out, we typically suspend judgment of a film until we've seen all of it, letting later scenes inform and enrich earlier ones. That, he says, is exactly how we need to see Genesis - as just the beginning of the whole movie of Scripture. Using this novel approach in "Genesis, the Movie," Capon develops a commentary of theological scope and depth on the first three chapters of Genesis. He gives every verse as it appears in the Hebrew, the Septuagint, and the Vulgate, as well as in the KJV, RSV, and NRSV versions of the Bible. Making extensive use of Augustine's commentary on Genesis in his "Confessions" and "De Genesi ad Litteram," Capon also shows the interpretive freedom with which the church's fathers and mothers approached Scripture. This book is as much Capon the charming writer-teacher as it is Capon the scholar, characterized as it is by the conversational, entertaining style for which Capon is so well known. Enriched by Capon's signature wit, imaginative wisdom, and broad-ranging engagement of saints, poets, and religious thinkers across the centuries, "Genesis, the Movie" presents a remarkable new look at Scripture that will delight and challenge its many readers.
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First Sentence
In my new, cinematic image for the Bible, the film of Genesis begins in silence, with a black screen. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
In my new, cinematic image for the Bible, the film of Genesis begins in silence, with a black screen. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Genesis: The Movie is a "must-see.",
By
This review is from: Genesis, the Movie (Hardcover)
Robert Farrar Capon's "Genesis: The Movie" comes to us as oxygen just in the nick of time, before stuffy, self-righteous religion asphyxiates us all. Although reading this book challenges us - together we study scripture as scholars and serious students of God's Word - we get to do it in the slightly indulgent, yummy atmosphere of watching a movie, making us feel included and in on the action. This is Robert's effective way of sticking to his vast subject without losing our interest, as he delivers a perfect balance of drama, intellectual intrigue and comic relief - like a great film.I have read many of Robert's books over the years, and have therefore arrived at an unshakeable understanding of Grace: We are forgiven. I'm happy to report that Genesis never falls off the fulcrum of Grace upon which all of our thoughts, desires and prayers are poised. But it goes deeper: Robert's fearless, cosmic take on the Holy Trinity, enhanced by selected readings of Augustine, Aquinas and other prophets of our modern times, wreaks havoc on the rules and formulas we dispassionately believe we must live by. He pulls our dull, preconceived ideas about God, creation, sin, history and faith right off our shelves in his gently convincing makeover of our philosophies, and brilliantly replaces them with elegant, unsentimental visions of divinity, creation and truth that make us forget why we held on to anything else - or how we thought we could have commented on a movie we'd barely even seen. The end result is a jaw-dropping achievement: frame by tightly-edited frame, image after image, Robert Capon helps us see God's unfathomable love for us - and we can't take our eyes off the page. The experience of reading "Genesis: The Movie" will delight and heal you no matter what shape you're in when you come to the theater...and will stay with you long after the credits roll.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A typically unconventional ride,
By Jamie Howison (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Genesis, the Movie (Hardcover)
Robert Capon's "Genesis: the movie" is a typically unconventional Capon ride. What makes the book most interesting (and this is true of his work generally)is that for all of its "unconventionality," it is born of a deep and foundational theological orthodoxy; I can't think of the last time I read a new book that worked so extensively with Augustine! Even the sections that might make some self-proclaimed orthodox readers shudder (and here I would highlight his idea of God's "ecology of good and evil")are rooted in a wrestling with the deep traditions of Jewish and Christian biblical interpretation. Besides, I know of few theological writers who have so much fun doing theology, and that has to be worth a great deal in a discipline that can easily become dry and dusty.
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Bible as a Movie?,
By A Customer
This review is from: Genesis, the Movie (Hardcover)
Wow is all I have to say. What an incredible concept, reading the Bible as if you were watching a movie. Robert Capon uses this imagery throughout his entire book on Genesis. He lets us view the scenes through the Director's (the Holy Spirit's) eyes. The Father is the Producer of Trinity Films and the Word is the Star of the film. What an excellent image for the understanding of the mystery of the Trinity. I have read almost all of his books and I find that this one is different from all the others. Readers will be thoroughly satisfied with this his latest and I think most magnificent work. Bravo, Robert!
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