Propriety and Trespass

Abstract

Abstract Contrary to the popular view, the first chapters of Genesis do not attempt to instruct us about the process by which the species came into being ("the origin of species"), but rather about the relations that obtain, or should obtain, among them. In the context of reading Genesis after Darwin, it is noteworthy that the theme of eating is central in Genesis 1 and 3, for an important part of Darwin's legacy is the understanding that food chains are the means whereby all creatures are bound together with one another and with the earth itself. Further, we learn from Darwin that, for each species, survival is a matter of propriety. That is, it depends upon behavior that observes the limits of a particular place within the larger web of life. This chapter focuses on what the opening chapters of the Bible suggest about the divine provision of food for all creatures, the intended role of humans, and the tendency of the human species to violate the limits. Contributions to the exegetical conversation come from contemporary agrarian writers (e.g., Wendell Berry, Wes Jackson, Norman Wirzba), who argue compellingly that industrial agriculture represents an unsustainable disruption of the food chains that sustain humans and numberless other creatures.