1. ASSUMPTIONS WE MAY BRING TO GENESIS 1:1-25

Having moved permanently to Tahiti in 1895, the French artist, Paul Gauguin, painted his monumental work, D’ou Venons Nous/ Que Sommes Nous / Où Allons Nous, which translates into English as: Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? However, the sad truth is that Gauguin did not have answers in any language to his questions. He was plagued by poor mental health and, shortly after completing this work, attempted suicide¹Letters of Paul Gauguin to Georges Daniel De Monfreid, trans. Ruth Pielkovo (Dodd, Mead & Company, 1922), 59-102. Although he was not using ‘God’ words, from within his multicultural worldview Gauguin was still asking ‘God’ kind of questions – is there anything or anyone out there who can tell me the beginning and the end? Who can make sense of life for me? How should we view our existence?

Secular culture tends to see reality as merely material and so can be fatally pessimistic. In 1903, the philosopher Bertrand Russell argued that man’s ‘origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms.’ He saw nothing beyond the grave but ‘extinction in the vast death of the solar system.’ Therefore he concluded, ‘only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built.’²Bertrand Russell, ‘A Free Man’s Worship,’ in Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays (Longmans, Green & Co., 1918), 46-57.

The logical conclusion of a world without God is a world without lasting meaning. And yet, Bertrand Russell’s daughter observed that ‘his whole life was a search for God … [I]n the depths of his soul, there was an empty space that had once been filled by God. And he never found anything else to put in it.’³Katharine Tait, My Father, Bertrand Russell (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975), 189.

In many cultures that continue to affirm the existence of a spiritual reality above the material world there is both a strong desire to live our lives in accord with that spiritual reality, yet also a feeling of distance and fear as to what that reality is and how to live by it. 

For example, African traditional religion is generally characterised by two main elements. First, by a spiritual structure of higher and lesser divinities, mediating ancestors, and witch doctors, holy men, or sangomas⁴‘Highly respected healer among the Zulu people of South Africa, who diagnoses, prescribes, and often performs the rituals to heal a person physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually’ (Britannica.com at https://www.britannica.com/science/sangoma [accessed 4 July 2024]).  who advise on the sacrifices necessary to appease the ancestors and other spirits and bring a good outcome. Second, the importance of community consensus across different ethnic groups or tribes in determining who are the worthy ancestor spirits that are working in a mediatorial way in this spiritual chain.  Amid terrors and fears which emanate from traditional beliefs in spiritual powers, African Christians may wonder if Jesus, who is not a member of their community, and not as such approved by the community as an ancestor-mediator, is sufficient to address their spiritual insecurities.⁵For example, in Yoruba culture in Nigeria, ancestors known as Egungun are highly revered and honoured by the community through annual festivals, where the ancestors are believed to return to offer blessings and guidance. The worthiness of an ancestor is often determined by their contributions to the family and society, as well as their adherence to religious practices. Similarly, in Zulu culture in South Africa, ancestors, referred to as Amadlozi or Abaphansi, are integral to spiritual life. The community recognizes ancestors who have lived virtuous lives and contributed significantly to the family and clan. Rituals involving the slaughtering of cattle, offerings of beer, and other traditional ceremonies are conducted to honour and communicate with the ancestors. Cf. Kwame Bediako, ‘Jesus in African Culture: A Ghanaian perspective,’ in his Jesus in Africa: The Christian Gospel in African History and Experience (Regnum Afrika, 2004), 20-33. See also M.T. Drewal, Yoruba Ritual: Performers, Play, Agency (Indiana University Press, 1992), 45-67, 108-135; and Harriet Ngubane, Body and Mind in Zulu Medicine: An Ethnography of Health and Disease in Nyuswa-Zulu Thought and Practice (Academic Press, 1977), 29-31, 65-73, 91-99.

Whether it is a hardened atheist like Russell or an angst-ridden artist like Gauguin or in specifically religious contexts, we appear irresistibly drawn to spiritual questions that are personal and experiential in nature. And it is God, the Creator of our material and spiritual world, who confronts us in Genesis 1 and throughout this first book of the Bible.

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• 1
  Letters of Paul Gauguin to Georges Daniel De Monfreid, trans. Ruth Pielkovo (Dodd, Mead & Company, 1922), 59-102. ↩︎
• 2
  Bertrand Russell, ‘A Free Man’s Worship,’ in Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays (Longmans, Green & Co., 1918), 46-57. ↩︎
• 3
  Katharine Tait, My Father, Bertrand Russell (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975), 189. ↩︎
• 4
  ‘Highly respected healer among the Zulu people of South Africa, who diagnoses, prescribes, and often performs the rituals to heal a person physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually’ (Britannica.com at https://www.britannica.com/science/sangoma [accessed 4 July 2024]).  ↩︎
• 5
  For example, in Yoruba culture in Nigeria, ancestors known as Egungun are highly revered and honoured by the community through annual festivals, where the ancestors are believed to return to offer blessings and guidance. The worthiness of an ancestor is often determined by their contributions to the family and society, as well as their adherence to religious practices. Similarly, in Zulu culture in South Africa, ancestors, referred to as Amadlozi or Abaphansi, are integral to spiritual life. The community recognizes ancestors who have lived virtuous lives and contributed significantly to the family and clan. Rituals involving the slaughtering of cattle, offerings of beer, and other traditional ceremonies are conducted to honour and communicate with the ancestors. Cf. Kwame Bediako, ‘Jesus in African Culture: A Ghanaian perspective,’ in his Jesus in Africa: The Christian Gospel in African History and Experience (Regnum Afrika, 2004), 20-33. See also M.T. Drewal, Yoruba Ritual: Performers, Play, Agency (Indiana University Press, 1992), 45-67, 108-135; and Harriet Ngubane, Body and Mind in Zulu Medicine: An Ethnography of Health and Disease in Nyuswa-Zulu Thought and Practice (Academic Press, 1977), 29-31, 65-73, 91-99. ↩︎