Creation as Allegory
Photo credit: Jadon Brammer
Many readers of Genesis perceive not one but two creation stories: the 7-day creation story that starts at Chapter 1 and runs through Chapter 2:4, and the story that starts at 2:4 and runs through Chapter 4. (Some readers consider the second story to be an elaboration of the first.) In dazzling images, stately cadences, and elegant simplicity, the first story, Creation I, imagines the origin of the universe: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” God speaks the world into being: “God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” God says “Let there be a firmament” and a firmament appears. God says “let the dry land appear,” and it appears. God speaks “living creatures” into being in the water, air, and on land. Then God speaks humanity into being. God says “Let us make man in our own likeness” and humans appear: “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” God places humans at the top of the food chain, affirms that the whole creation is “good,” and blesses everything. God speaks, makes, names, affirms, and blesses.
Some readers argue about whether this all “really happened.” But whether it “really happened” is an inappropriate question to ask. The earliest tellers of this tale were not trying to do earth science like twenty-first century geologists. Ancient storytellers did not operate with the same concept of truth as a twenty-first century scientist. Why would they? Scientific method--with its emphasis on hypothesis, experimentation, verification, replication, fact--had not yet emerged in intellectual history. I have never been inclined, while reading the Bible’s creation stories, to ask whether the accounts are “true” in a scientific sense. It seems clear to me that the stories aren’t attempting to do twenty-first century earth science. Besides, scientific truth is not the only kind of truth I value.
Literature explores varieties of truth that evade scientific method. Emily Dickinson addresses something like this when she wrote “Tell all the truth but tell it slant—” Some truths—like emotional, social, and spiritual truths—must be accessed indirectly. To access the kind of truth circulating through the creation stories, you have to ask appropriate questions: What is the story thinking about? What does the story suggest about emotional, social, and spiritual experience?
Creation is, among other things, thinking about creativity. One of the story’s remarkable truth-claims is that people resemble God, giving rise to an intriguing question: How are human beings like the God of Creation? My classrooms are filled with aspiring creatives--writers, actors, dancers, musicians, visual artists, filmmakers--so one answer to that question comes up repeatedly: people are creators too. Creation 1-2:4 can be read as an allegory of the creative process, with God as an archetypal creative. Read as an allegory of creativity, the story offers actionable insight about real-life creative process.
Creation presents creativity as a process that unfolds step-by-step, a process that benefits from steady rhythms. Also, since God speaks the world into being, the story suggests that language mobilizes creative power. These ideas about creativity apply not only to artists but also to the kind of creativity necessary for what we could call lifecraft--the process of creating selves, relationships, homes, families, and communities.
To an extent, we engineer reality using language, so effective creators use the power of language mindfully. Language sets intention, targets goals, and initiates the process of bringing things into being. According to the Bible, we speak the world into being, so if we wish to create more egalitarian communities, for examples, we should not say that racism, sexism, and other forms of discriminatory hate will always exist. We should instead use language to envision and affirm equality, assuming that language contains creative power. Effective parents practice this kind of creativity constantly. Parents who want to empower their children don’t say “You’ll never amount to anything!” Skillful parents recognize and affirm a child for what they do well, using language to help the child build a positive self-image. Intuitively, we know that language can create or destroy selves. This is why popular psychology, therapeutic practice and creativity coaching teach creatives to monitor the language inside their own minds, to cultivate a habit of positive “self-talk.” To some extent, we become what gets said about us, by others and by ourselves. For creativity to flourish, we need an “Inner Cheerleader” rather than an “Inner Critic.”
Creation suggests that creativity requires affirmation. After every act of creation, God pauses, beholds what has been created, and reflects that it is “good.” The story repeats “God saw that it was good.” “And God saw that it was good.” After God makes human beings, and establishes them in an ecological system teeming with life and food, God sees that “it was very good.” “It was good” punctuates the creative process like a musical refrain. Powerful creators notice goodness, the story suggests. Creating an artistic product, a healthy body, a peaceful home, or a well-adjusted self requires affirmation. Just as athletes use visualization and affirmation to create peak fitness and skill in sport, everyday creativity requires similar discipline in self-affirmation and approval--a pause to notice goodness.
Photo credit: Jadon Brammer
Reading Creation allegorically like this allows the reader to imagine actions that would follow from the insights the story embodies. The pause to notice goodness, built into the story’s rhythmic phrasing, highlights the role of regular rhythm in creativity. Successful creatives have daily routines that structure their creative practice. Most painters sketch every day. Most dancers train every day. Practicing everyday, ordinary lifecraft creatively also requires routine and rhythm--coffee in the morning, tea in the afternoon, watering the plants, doing the dishes, playing with the dog, preparing meals. Rhythm supports creativity.
Rest is also essential to creators, according to Genesis: “God “rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done” and “hallowed it, because on it God rested from all his work which he had done in creation.” The failure to rest has claimed the lives of many famous creatives. When rock stars or other celebrated creatives turn to drugs to keep going, they almost invariably precipitate a breakdown or worse. Even without drugs, overwork can drain and disable creativity. Creatives outside the sphere of art--homemakers, scientists, entrepreneurs, city planners, lawmakers, farmers--run the same risk.
Allegorically speaking, the idea that people are made in the image of God affirms human creativity. People create constantly, in and out of the public sphere. We create homes, relationships, communities, and lifestyles in addition to artistic products, commercial products, businesses, and services. However we exercise our creative energy, the Genesis Creation story suggests that our efforts depend for success largely on the power of language, affirmation, rhythm, and rest.
Throughout the history of the genre, allegory has often served as a catalyst for action. You can use allegorical insight to reflect on behavior and envision change. What are you busy creating? How are you using language in your creative process? What does the self-talk inside your head sound like? Is the language in your head affirming your efforts? Are you saying anything to yourself or anyone else that could sabotage creativity? What is good about what you have created so far? What routines and rhythms support your process? When do you rest? How do you rest? By acting on Creation’s picture of the importance of language, affirmation, rhythm, and rest to creativity, readers can maximize the success of their own creative endeavors.
Photo credit: Jadon Brammer
Sources:
Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way