When the Great Abyss Opened: Classic and Contemporary Readings of Noah's FloodThe story of Noah's flood is one of the best-loved and most often retold biblical tales, the inspiration for numerous children's books and toys, novels, and even films. Whether as allusion, archetype, or literal presence--the American landscape is peppered with "recreations" of the ark--the story of Noah's animals and the ark resonates throughout American culture and the world. While most think of Noah's ark as a dramatic myth, others are consumed by the quest for geological and archeological proof that the flood really occurred. Persistent rumors of a large vessel on the mountain of Ararat in Turkey, for instance, have led many pilgrims and explorers over the centuries to visit that fabled peak. Recent finds suggest that there may have been a catastrophic flood on the shores of the Black Sea some 7,600 years ago. Is this then the reality behind the ancient tale of Noah? More to the point, why does it matter? What does the story of the Flood mean to us and why does it so stir the collective imagination? When the Great Abyss Opened examines the history of our attempts to understand the Flood, from medieval Jewish and Christian speculation about the physical details of the ark to contemporary efforts to link it to scientific findings. Unraveling the mythical dimensions of the parallel Mesopotamian flood stories and their deeper social and psychological significance, J. David Pleins also considers the story's positive uses in theology and moral instruction. Noah's tale, however, has also been invoked as a means of justifying exclusion, racism, and anti-homosexual views. Pro-slavery advocates, for example, used the story of Noah's Curse on Ham's son Canaan to rationalize the enslavement of Africans. Throughout this expansive and lively book, Pleins sheds new light on our continuing attempts to understand this ancient primal myth. Noah's Flood, he contends, offers a unique case study that illuminates the timeless and timely question of how fact and faith relate. |
Contents
Black Sea Flooding and Mountain Mania | 3 |
Competing Ways to Read Genesis | 15 |
The Literalists Lens | 23 |
Fundamentalist Literalism and Creation Science | 43 |
Traditional and Early Scientific Visions of the Flood | 67 |
Adopting the Mythic View | 95 |
Reinventing the Flood Myth | 115 |
When Myths Go Wrong | 129 |
Male Hero Fantasies and the Second Sex | 145 |
Science Myth and the Flood Today | 159 |
Conclusion Telling Many Different Stories | 183 |
Appendix The J and P Versions of the Flood Story | 189 |
Notes | 197 |
219 | |
229 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
ancient animals Ararat archaeology argues Atrahasis believers Bible's biblical flood biblical text Bilgames Black Sea Buckland Canaan catastrophe century chap Christian creation science Creationists culture curse curse of Ham dialogue divine earth Enkidu Epic of Gilgamesh event evolution fact faith flood geology flood story flood tale fossils fundamentalist Genesis flood geological geologists global flood God's goddess gods Ham story Ham's hero Hitchcock homosexual human Huxley Ibid imagination insight interpretation Israel Israelite Jacob Jewish land later layers Legend of Noah literalist literary living Mallowan Mesopotamian flood modern Moses mountain mythic nature Noah Noah's flood offer question rabbis reading religion and science religionists religious Ryan and Pitman science and religion scientific scientists scripture sense slavery T. H. Huxley Talmud tells theological theory thought tion tradition trial truth Utnapishtim Whitcomb and Morris wife women words writers YHWH York Ziusudra