My friend and colleague, John Byron has written a wonderful post on the story of Noah's Ark and how it is portrayed in our contemporary context. He writes,
...I wonder if I am the only one who finds it odd that people have transformed the story of Noah and the flood into a quaint children's story? We wallpaper the nursery with pictures of Noah's Ark, create toys with action figures and produce story books that feature cute pictures of animals. Heck, we even have birthday cakes made to look like the ark.
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...I wonder if I am the only one who finds it odd that people have transformed the story of Noah and the flood into a quaint children's story? We wallpaper the nursery with pictures of Noah's Ark, create toys with action figures and produce story books that feature cute pictures of animals. Heck, we even have birthday cakes made to look like the ark.
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But has anyone really thought about the story before doing all this? The story is about the destruction of the world. All but eight humans are wiped out along with a significant portion of the animal kingdom. Is this the kind of story that we want to hold up to children as something to celebrate? I know it is in the Bible, but so is a lot of other stuff. For instance, I don't see anyone making an Elijah action figure that can kill all the prophets of Baal. Or how about Joshua committing divinely inspired genocide? Somehow making the story of Noah into a children's bed time story and wallpaper design is like creating a Ford's Theater play set or a Titanic for the bathtub.
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John also comments on several contemporary Noah's Ark projects.
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John also comments on several contemporary Noah's Ark projects.
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You can read his entire post here.
1 comment:
I suppose the story of Noah has been minimized by society because it has been minimized and domesticated by the church. When was the last time you heard or delivered a serious sermon on Noah and/or the Flood? The same thing has been happening to the account of Adam & Eve. Both are questioned and even denied by scholars "in the know." Just read the comments to books and articles reviewed at that popular Emergent theologian's website. It seems there is a wide swath of Christians who reject the "fundamentalist" and "evangelical" belief that Adam & Eve and/or the Flood really ever existed.
Peter wrote that just as people denied the Creation and the Flood so also will they deny the Second Coming. What a strange thing to assert.
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