Reading the Universe Story Theologically: The Contribution of a Biblical Narrative Imagination

Abstract

The article assesses different ways of incorporating the results of the historical sciences of cosmology, geology, and evolutionary biology into theology. Appeal to biblical poetics and the philosophical and theological hermeneutics of narrative reveals serious flaws in the attempt to recast a history of origins as a “universe story.” Framing the results of science as a mosaic of petit narratives (such as provided by Aldo Leopold's classic Sand County Almanac) gives a more adequate correlation to Scripture and avoids problems common to all metanarratives.