Seven Days that Divide the World, 10th Anniversary Edition: The Beginning According to Genesis and Science
Written by John C Lennox
Narrated by Justin Brierly
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
Now revised and updated--John Lennox's acclaimed method of reading and interpreting the first chapters of Genesis without discounting either science or Scripture.
What did the writer of Genesis mean by "the first day?" Are the seven days in Genesis 1 a literal week or a series of time periods? If I believe that the earth is 4.5 billion years old as cosmologists believe, am I denying the authority of Scripture?
With examples from history, a brief but thorough exploration of the major interpretations, and a look into the particular significance of the creation of human beings, Lennox suggests that Christians can heed modern scientific knowledge while staying faithful to the biblical narrative. He moves beyond a simple response to the controversy, insisting that Genesis teaches us far more about the God of Jesus Christ and about God's intention for creation than it does about the age of the earth.
With this book, Lennox offers a careful and accessible introduction to a scientifically-savvy, theologically-astute, and Scripturally faithful interpretation of Genesis.
Since its publication in 2011, this book has enabled many readers to see that the major controversy with which it engages can be resolved without compromising commitment to the authority of Scripture. In this newly revised and expanded edition, John clarifies his arguments, responds to comments and critiques of the past decade since its first publication. In particular, he describes some of the history up to modern times of Jewish scholarly interpretation of the Genesis creation narrative as well as spelling out in more detail the breadth of views in the Great Tradition of interpretation due to the early Church Fathers. He shows that, contrary to what many people think, much of the difficulty with understanding the biblical texts does not arise from modern science but from attempting to elucidate the texts in their own right.
John C Lennox
John Lennox is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and Fellow in Mathematics and Philosophy of Science at Green Templeton College. He lectures on Faith and Science for the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics. He has lectured in many universities around the world, including Austria and the former Soviet Union. He is particularly interested in the interface of Science, Philosophy and Theology. Lennox has been part of numerous public debates defending the Christian faith. He debated Richard Dawkins on "The God Delusion" in the University of Alabama (2007) and on "Has Science buried God?" in the Oxford Museum of Natural History (2008). He has also debated Christopher Hitchens on the New Atheism (Edinburgh Festival, 2008) and the question of "Is God Great?" (Samford University, 2010), as well as Peter Singer on the topic of "Is there a God?" (Melbourne, 2011). John is the author of a number of books on the relations of science, religion and ethics. He and his wife Sally live near Oxford.
More audiobooks from John C Lennox
2084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Determined to Believe?: The Sovereignty of God, Freedom, Faith, and Human Responsibility Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Can Science Explain Everything? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Where is God in a Coronavirus World? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to Seven Days that Divide the World, 10th Anniversary Edition
Related audiobooks
Can We Trust the Gospels? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why the Universe Is the Way It Is (Reasons to Believe) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unearthing the Bible: 101 Archaeological Discoveries That Bring the Bible to Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Darwin Devolves: The New Science About DNA That Challenges Evolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Doubter's Guide to Jesus: An Introduction to the Man from Nazareth for Believers and Skeptics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Genesis Flood: The Biblical Record and Its Scientific Implications Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unimaginable: What Our World Would Be Like Without Christianity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Doubter's Guide to the Bible: Inside History’s Bestseller for Believers and Skeptics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Christ Files: How Historians Know What They Know about Jesus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5God Answers Science: From Origin to End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Introduction to Christianity and Science: Audio Lectures: 13 Lessons on the Critical Issues Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Four Views on Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2-3 and the Human Origins Debate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Three Views on Christianity and Science Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Case for Christ Daily Moment of Truth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReinventing Jesus: How Contemporary Skeptics Miss the Real Jesus and Mislead Popular Culture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Question of Canon: Challenging the Status Quo in the New Testament Debate Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Know How We Got Our Bible Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Time and Eternity: Exploring God's Relationship to Time Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Improbable Planet: How Earth Became Humanity's Home Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/52084: Audio Lectures: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries That Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith: Exploring the Ultimate Questions About Life and the Cosmos Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Religion & Science For You
Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries That Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Flip: Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of Faith Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding God in the Waves: How I Lost My Faith and Found it Again Through Science Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fearfully and Wonderfully: The Marvel of Bearing God's Image Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates the New Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist's Case for the Existence of the Soul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Faith Unraveled: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask Questions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Evolution of God Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Age of AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Case for Miracles: A Journalist Investigates Evidence for the Supernatural Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On the Mystery of Being: Contemporary Insights on the Convergence of Science and Spirituality Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why Science Does Not Disprove God Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Creator and the Cosmos: How the Latest Scientific Discoveries Reveal God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Seeking Heaven: Sound Journeys into the Beyond Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Genealogical Adam and Eve: The Surprising Science of Universal Ancestry Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/52084: Audio Lectures: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn't Say about Human Origins Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Human Instinct: How We Evolved to Have Reason, Consciousness, and Free Will Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2-3 and the Human Origins Debate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Teilhard de Chardin's Cosmic Christology and Christian Cosmology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Science of the Good Samaritan: Thinking Bigger about Loving Our Neighbors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wonder of Creation: 100 More Devotions About God and Science Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In the Beginning There Was...Information Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5God and the Afterlife: The Groundbreaking New Evidence for God and Near-Death Experience Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Seven Days that Divide the World, 10th Anniversary Edition
69 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Justin Brierly is an excellent narrator, John Lennox is a horrible narrator (although he’s an excellent philosopher and scientist).
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A good read, lots of interesting ideas to chew on. I’m not a Christian and this was fun to go through but a bit over my head
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A thought provoking and logical presentation. Explores many views of topics related to science, philosophy, evolutionary ideas and creation. Worth exploring.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great book, I loved his explanation on interpretation.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5This was lent me by a friend, but turned out not to address with any clarity the issues I thought it was going to be about. (I had never even heard of "the Cosmic Temple View" and, as I skipped that Appendix, I am still blissfully unaware of that theory). I am confused as to how the author does indeed square his beliefs with scientific discoveries to date: if Adam and Eve were two actual people, made from dust, from whom the whole human race is descended, what are we to make of the existence of other "Neolithic farmers" alive around them? (I should say that I know very little about the currently theorized timeline of evolution, but I did not trust the author to present it fairly by the time I got to chapter 4). I started skimming from chapter 3 onwards, but for me this book raised questions and then shot them down if they did not agree with a fairly literal reading of Genesis chapters 1-3. As another reviewer has pointed out, an Appendix describes the language of Genesis 1 as "exalted, semi-poetical" language, but the author chooses to regard the text as poetry (or perhaps semi-poetry) describing "nonpoetic factual statements about the creation and organization of the physical universe itself". He says this is "clear". The author also uses far too many exclamation marks.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As a serious student of both technology and the Bible, I am always looking for good books that attempt to understand the connections and apparent contradictions between the two. In this book, Lennox looks at the issues of creation as outlined in Genesis versus science. People like Stephen Jay Gould argued (in Rocks of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life) that religion and the Bible are non-overlapping magisteria and as such have nothing to do with each other and no attempt should be made to reconcile them. Lennox in this book does not agree with that and does a generally good job at looking at the Bible and creation. He raises a number of good questions and brings up some excellent points about how at different periods in time people have fervently believed the Bible stated something regarding science that we no longer think it does. He talks about how passages in the Bible refer to the earth as unmoving (such as 1 Chronicles 16:30 and Psalms 93:1) and others that the sun did move (such as Ecclesiastes). These verses and others were used to refute Copernicus’s heliocentric view that the earth revolves around the sun. Luther and Calvin both disagreed with this view. Of course, we now view those passages as being poetic or metaphoric, not literal. It is an important cautionary tale for how we should approach the creation account in Genesis.Although I found the book very interesting and well worth reading, it was difficult to tell where the author was going. He raises many good points, but did not actually resolve them. He does, however, a decent job of pointing out what is essential, such as that fact that God was in control of creation, not random chance. I actually found the appendices, especially the final one, as interesting as the rest of book to me. I consider this book well worth the time it took to read for anyone interested in a Biblical perspective on creation and science.