0037 Carol Hill next turns to the historicity of the Genesis text.  She introduces a worldview approach similar to Lamoureux’s.  The science-scripture dialogue must respect archaeological science and the worldview of those who preserved and wrote the scriptures.

0038 First, she does not explicitly label the genre of the stories of Adam and Eve.  She does not call them, “fairy tales”.  Instead, she writes (page 139), “The important point is that, while the Adam and Eve / Garden of Eden story could have involved real people residing in a real place, the writing of this story by the biblical authors was commensurate with the use of figurative images in narratives common to the ancient Near East.”

0039 Second, Noah is both a fairytale figure and an epic hero.  This explains the two styles intermingled in the story of Noah’s flood.  One style goes with the earlier fairy tales.  The other style goes with the later Patriarchs (more or less).

0040 Third, Abraham is an epic hero.

0041 So, the question of genre comes to the fore.

I may ask, “Is Genesis fairy tale, epic or ancient Near Eastern mythology?”

0042 Others frame the question differently.

A review of a recent book on this subject may be found in the November and December 2021 blog at www.raziemah.com.  The title of the blog is Looking at the Book (2015) “Genesis: History, Fiction or Neither?”.

Three scholars of the Bible contribute to this 2015 book, James Hoffmeier, Gordon Wehnam and Kenton Sparks.  These theologians wrestle with various worldview approaches, with insight-filled results.

Yet, their insights are not complete, because, like Hill, they do not know about the scientific hypothesis addressing the question, “Why is our current Lebenswelt not the same as the Lebenswelt that we evolved in?”