Creation Story Research Articles

Mākua: A Creation Story

MākuaA Creation Story Leilani Portillo (bio) i remember the first night,the sharp air filling my lungs,pō forcing me to trust voiceswithout faces. a calm fear enteredmy body and i did not sleep. i roseearly the next morning chanting e ala egreeting the sun, surrounded by ancestors.the consecration took place later that day:a pu'uhonua was born. that night i fell ill.a headache weighed me down,chills shook my body. was this a testbefore the standoff?again, e ala e was chantedand ceremony was conductedevery hour on the hour.a much-needed grounding. diaspora is a particular type of traumaa severance that cuts deep—leaving me raw and tenderbut maunakea called to meand so i stood with the lāhuiand bore witness.bore witness to riot gear andouter island cops,to frontline kūpuna andprotective mana wāhine,to hae hawai'i andregular ceremony. [End Page 588] it is said that haumea bore generationupon generation of 'ōiwi,rebirthing herself to createfour hundred thousand kūpunaand mo'opuna.haumea, of nu'umealani, of kahiki,bore children from sacred thighsand brains.haumea who is slyly reproductivebearing children in a multitude of ways.i remember that i am haumeawho can bear frommy sacred thighsbut also from my brains,my mouth, my words, my poetry.i become that which feeds. a seed was plantedin my na'au undera rising moon,surrounded by lilinoe.a blessed puacreated in ceremonyand rooted in the sacred:ka'ala became the source. [End Page 589] Leilani Portillo leilani portillo (she/they) is a queer diasporic Kanaka Maoli poet, potter, and artist. They grew up on Occupied Ohlone territory and moved to Hawai'i in 2012. Learning 'ōlelo Hawai'i has shaped their understanding of the world around them through a Kanaka Maoli way of being. While navigating their kuleana as a diasporic Kanaka, they quickly realized the importance of defending Maunakea from desecration and joined kia'i who decided to create a pu'uhonua at Pu'uhuluhulu. Throughout their journey of reconnection, they have kept art and poetry at the center of their work, emphasizing the need for artists in our movements for the lāhui. Stepping back after the first month, they nurtured and grew a pua that was born on Lā Honua in 2020, and has since been raising a future aloha 'āina. Copyright © 2021 The George and Marguerite Simson Biographical Research Center

"The New There": The Politics of Access in Sherwin Bitsui's Dissolve

"The New There":The Politics of Access in Sherwin Bitsui's Dissolve Jay Deshpande (bio) Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 2019. 80 pages. $16.00 Reading contemporary poetry, we tend to treat the speaking I as the key to understanding questions of identity. But poetry can inhabit difference in more ways than the speaker or the assumption of autobiography: it can change our sense of access altogether. In his third book, the Diné (Navajo) poet Sherwin Bitsui takes an approach that is entirely his own. I replace what I saw with what I heard, pull out a lettersent from ourself to my selves —and for a secondthe flattened field is chandeliered by desert animal constellations. (14) Dissolve keeps the reader close to the page, tracing the slight adjustments that occur through a sentence. (How is the heard distinct from the seen? How does it relate to a self-addressed letter? And what is the significance of differentiating between a first-person plural and a first-person singular?) But often the experience is one of frustration: much like the field's brief illumination, we discover a system of logic only for a moment before it collapses. In his 2017 essay "Sherwin Bitsui's Blank Dictionary," Brian Reed explores a similar frustration in close-reading the poet's previous collection, the American Book Award-winning Flood Song. Reed suggests that rather than rewarding "greater ingenuity, a reorientation to the nature of language, or immersive research," Bitsui's poetry highlights a difference between how it may be read inside and outside of Native American communities. "Non-Indigenous readers are permitted, even invited, to read such poetry," Reed says, "only to have the fullness of its meaning withheld." One of the great gifts that Dissolve bestows is what it withholds. A reader like me has to live in the discomfiting experience of being on the outside. It's not just that this work challenges me: it's that it refuses to reaffirm my intelligence, or the rules of the world I live in, or the academic systems (of class, whiteness, privilege) that taught me how to read poems. Instead, Bitsui reminds me that there are other ways of experiencing language and world. I find myself bristling, uncomfortable, and indebted. In texture and structure, Dissolve is an extension of Flood Song. Much like its predecessor, the book consists primarily of one long poem. Its sections are short and image-driven; they resist paraphrase but bear every sign of meticulous, confident crafting. A lake, now a tire-rut pool,leaves bitter aftertasteson single-roomed tongues. (31) Throughout the poem, an image is offered to the reader, then modified, then linked to another register of imagery altogether. Reading the sentence above, I picture a lake, then re-envision it as a pool of water in a rutted dirt road. I imagine consuming that bitter lake-become-pool. But then I trip over yet another modification: the tongue is "single-roomed," which suggests the mouth as a low-rent habitation. Bitsui's image lexicon thrives on indeterminacy and change. The poem is full of mist, cloud, pollen, wind. These atmospheric nouns give texture and echo the Diné Bahane', the Navajo creation story. They are also ephemeral; they cannot be caught. Bitsui's impulse is to shift between tangible matter [End Page 219] and fleeting forms, so that one thing slips into another and we cannot tell where body ends and mist begins. In keeping with the book's title, he reminds us to allow for passing experiences of language, the senses, or the metaphysical—nothing lasting, all of it mutable. Covering its sobs with corral dirt,I imagine a canyon floor,cornstalks growing in rowsalong a sunlit sandstone wall in the far corner of a room late in life. (12) Dissolve is landscape poetry, redolent with the American Southwest: canyons, trails, and open expanses. But it is also rife with imagery of destruction. Here are "maps of jet fuel residue" (38), the "hummingbird's gassed lungs" (24), and evaporating lakes. The speaker witnesses the "uranium pond" (19) left by mining on Diné land, as well as the gentrification of natural resources: "This plot...

초대교회의 급진적 포용주의와 성소수자

This article deals with the issue of sexual minorities, which is currently one of the most pressing issues among Korean protestant churches. For Christians, the scripture is a touchstone for faith and practice, and the extreme anti-homosexual stance of current Korean protestant churches is based on several anti-homosexual texts in the Bible. To begin, this article clarifies the hermeneutical principles that need to be considered when dealing with the problems of sexual minorities in terms of the Bible. It then goes further, providing a critical exegesis of the specific biblical texts that have provided the basis for justifying the widespread homophobia in protestant churches in Korea.<BR> This study’s exegetical work starts with critical analyses and reinterpretations of the anti-homosexual texts in the Old and New Testaments. Then, it tries to provide common and healthy understandings of sexual minorities today for Christians, based on the interpretation of the creation stories in Genesis 1 and 2. In the Bible, no text that refers to sexual orientation as such, for instance, LGBT, could be found. Instead, the study found several texts that only seem to prohibit same-sex sexual intercourse. Among them, none were attributed to Jesus, leaving about 10 phrases that are frequently cited by Korean churches to justify their anti-homosexual stance (Gen. 1:27-28; 2:18-25; 19:1-29; Levi. 18:20-23; Judg. 19:1-30; Deut. 23:17; 1 Kings 14:24; 15:12; 22:45; 2 Kings 23:7; Rome. 1:18-32; 1 Cor. 6:9-11; Eph. 5:33; Jude 5-7), regardless of whether those texts really deal with homosexuality as such. In particular, the Sodom and Gomorrah story and the sacred code in the book of Leviticus are dealt with among the Old Testament. In the New Testament, Paul’s mentions of homosexual behaviors in the letters to the Romans and Corinthians are examined. Finally, the study tries to apply radical inclusivism appearing in Galatians 3:28 to LGBT people today.

Is 32,15a, ovvero l’arte dell’inizio

The article focuses on Isa 32,15a with regard to its function of debut of the salvation prophecy of vv. 15–20. The analysis, conducted on the basis of the studies of comparative literature on literary incipits, shows the peculiar significance of this solemn beginning, its generative force in relation to the rest of the pericope, which renders it an unprecedented „in the beginning”. To this end, the biblical author uses a form already codified during the Exilic period, making significant variations (transposition with initial function, shifting of the verb producing the metaphor, allusion to the stories of creation, reticence, change of the point of view). The analysis highlights also the socio-critical function of Isa 32,15a, as indirect claim of a group that, at the height of the Post-Exilic period, proclaims itself the depositary of eschatological salvation.

A Tale of Two Adams: Insights for the Integrity of a Catholic University

A Tale of Two AdamsInsights for the Integrity of a Catholic University Michael J. Naughton (bio) The Second Vatican Council describes the divided life as "the split between the faith which many profess and their daily lives." This split creates a false opposition between public and private spheres, faith and reason, professional and religious life. The Council explains that this split and divide "deserves to be counted among the more serious errors of our age."1 Alasdair MacIntyre calls this split "compartmentalization," which he argues is an increasing problem in modern life.2 In this article, I will examine the deep religious roots of this divided life, taking a cue from the book The Lonely Man of Faith by the Orthodox Jewish rabbi, Joseph Soloveitchik. The book originated, in part, in a talk to Catholic seminarians.3 Soloveitchik draws upon the two creation stories in the Book of Genesis that ground his insights in a theology of creation that is deeply if not entirely congruent with Catholic theology. I will then offer a critique of our contemporary attempts to solve the divided life syndrome by striving for "balance," rather than by insisting on a deeper integration of the active and contemplative life. In light of these insights on creation, on the divided life, and on the integrity of the active and contemplative life, I will draw some final insights concerning the Catholic university, which like all institutions suffers from its own form of divided life. The [End Page 132] university is a complex institution with many forces and factors influencing its life, and the analysis offered here is limited in scope, not meant to answer every challenge our Catholic universities face. But I think that we will make little headway in dealing with those many challenges unless we address the core concern of this article, namely that we are increasingly living in a world that discounts and suppresses the contemplative life and that elevates the active life alone. This unfortunate development in the wider society has profoundly affected our universities and the people who inhabit them. Josef Pieper has described the divide I am discussing here as the "total work mentality," a way of organizing life that creates proletarians whose inner poverty prevents the very conception of a reality outside the realm of activity and work. This "total work" disease has afflicted Catholic universities. Its presence can be seen in certain telltale symptoms, such as how they increasingly express their fundamental purpose, and how they are steadily distancing themselves from a Catholic understanding of the liberal arts, and the humanities in particular. Adam One and Adam Two: The Active and Contemplative Life and Its Alienation We were created both to work and to rest, both to be active and to be contemplative. These two dimensions of our lives are meant to inform each other as part of a deeper whole rather than exist as two modes of being that balance each other or effectively cancel each other out. To gain a better grasp of this truth, we need to return to our origins, in particular to the Book of Genesis, where we will find the nature of the created order and how it becomes disordered. Joseph Soloveitchik calls our attention to the fact that in Genesis there are not one, but two creation stories. He calls these two accounts "Adam One" and "Adam Two." For Soloveitchik, the reason we have two creation stories is not simply that there happened to be two alternative traditions kicking around; he suggests rather that each creation story is given to us to highlight an essential dimension [End Page 133] of our humanity.4 What he provides in his presentation of the "Two Adams" is not a complete exegesis of the texts, but a convenient way to perceive certain important truths about human nature. When taken together the two creation stories represent a profound synthesis of who we were created to be. Unfortunately, as we meet with these "two Adams" in life they tend to be alienated from each other, thus frustrating God's intention and disordering creation. Soloveitchik describes the tension between them as the great dilemma for the...

Lalibela: Spiritual Genealogy beyond Epistemic Violence in Ethiopia

The rock hewn churches of Lalibela have special significance in the formation of Ethiopia’s consciousness as a sacred land of God’s covenant. Numerous local stories express the sanctity of Lalibela as a Heavenly Jerusalem on earth and the faithful use holy soil from the churches to cure the sick. Every year, thousands of Tewahido believers travel to receive blessings. Local scholars who studied decades in the indigenous education system serve as intermediaries between the sanctity of the place and the people, and transmit their knowledge to the younger generation. This paper traces this spiritual genealogy to the creation story in the Kebra Nagast regarding the Ark of the Covenant (Tabot) and relates it to Lalibela’s famous churches. It demonstrates the existence of enduring spiritual genealogy that considers place as alive and powerful. The paper also reflects on how the loss of indigenous sources of knowledges, particularly through the stealing or taking of manuscripts by foreign collectors, and the rise of a Eurocentric interpretation of the history of Lalibela challenges this millennial spiritual tradition. It argues that this has resulted in epistemic violence, the practice of interpreting local knowledge with a foreign lens in a way that reinforces colonial Eurocentric views that are then internalised within Africans themselves. Despite such challenges, it shows how the genealogy continues through the very identity and practice of local communities and individuals.

NILAI FEMINISME KISAH PEREMPUAN DALAM AL QURAN

Everything about women and womenhood are always interesting to discuss either from economic, social, edocational or theological aspect. Some discourses should be discussed in order to present thoughts, theories or policies friendly to women’s right and to avoid  inequality in gender. The most interesting issue relate to theological framework. Religious text is often claimed to be one source of women discrimination and gender inequality. Some stories in religious text (al Quran) such as story of creation of Adam and Hawa and story of Maryam contain ideas that woman is a second human and that she gets subordination and injustice treatment. Actually, there are lot of researches about story of Quran (qashash al Quran), but they often stuck on the historical and chronological discussion. They forget some values behind those stories especially stories about women. Women as main figure surely has a special role to show the main value for women justice and equal right. The main cause of those discriminative interpretaion is that; most of Quranic interpreters are man, therefore, the result of interpretion is not considering women’s right. And the other cause is the use of israiliyyat stories which often blame and underestimate women’s position. Thus, we need to present new interpretaion of stories in the Quran, especially stories on women that we hope such new interpretation will give new toughts and policies for women justice and equal right.

The Shāhīn Affair and the Evolution ofuṣūl al-tafsīr

In 1997, the distinguished linguistics professor ʿAbd al-Ṣabūr Shāhīn of Cairo University published his re-reading of the story of creation, entitled Abī Ādam (‘My Father Adam’). Although the book created a storm of refutations, televised debates, and a blasphemy charge against the author, the Islamic Research Council of al-Azhar University concluded that the book was flawed but not blasphemous. This paper sheds light on Shāhīn's key strategies in arguing for an evolutionary reading of the Qur'an, in which Adam was the first full human (insān) endowed with divine spirit, but born on earth to hominid parents (bashar). Responses by two other linguist scholars, ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm Ibrāhīm al-Maṭʿanī of al-Azhar and Ḥamza b. Qublān al-Muzaynī of King Saud University, illustrate the contemporary underdevelopment of Qur'anic hermeneutics (uṣūl al-tafsīr) as a discipline. The paper draws attention to current scholarly developments in the Muslim world and the move from refutations to constructive accounts based on tradition.

Educating in the Seventh Fire: Debwewin, Mino‐bimaadiziwin, and Ecological Justice

AbstractThe Anishinaabe Seven Fires Creation Story can be read as a theory on which all human beings share a fundamental love of reflecting reality in what they think and do. In this article, Marc Kruse, Nicolas Tanchuk, and Robert Hamilton argue that this ethical theory is correct but that the colonial ideology taught in our schools can obscure our knowledge of this fact. Specifically, the authors claim that decolonizing education requires teaching students and teachers alike to see the presence of value whenever they encounter other beings animated by a responsiveness to reality. All living things strive to perceive and respond to reality — to live and continue to learn — even if epistemic faculties differ. All living things, then, the authors conclude, are rightly seen as our relatives and kin, as bearers of value to whom we owe moral respect, as Anishinaabe elders have long taught.

Reading and Teaching Milton’s Story of Creation

Reading and Teaching Milton’s Story of Creation

Food Sovereignty Practices at the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin Tsyunhehkw^ Farm

The paper looks at the role of traditional foodways and related cultural practices in Oneida’s contemporary food sovereignty efforts, and the various understandings of the continuity of food and agricultural traditions in the community. The tribe’s Tsyunhehkw^’s (joon-hen-kwa) farm, whose name loosely translates into “life sustenance” in English, serves important cultural, economic and educational purposes. It grows Oneida white flint corn, which is considered sacred by the tribe and is used for ceremonial purposes, it grows the tobacco used for ceremonies and runs a traditional Three Sisters Garden. The Three Sisters – corn, beans and squash, are an important part of the Oneida creation story, as well as the vision of Handsome Lake – a Seneca prophet from the turn of the 19th century, who played an significant role in the revival of traditional religion among the People of the Longhouse.[1] They inform the work done at Tsyunhehkw^ to provide healthful food for the Oneida community.&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; [1]The Oneida form part of the Iroquois Confederacy (as called by the French), referred to as the League of Five Nations by the English, or the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, as they call themselves. Haudenosaunee translates into the People of the Longhouse. The Confederacy, which was founded by the prophet known as Peacemaker with the help of Hiawatha, is made up of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. It was intended as a way to unite the nations and create a peaceful means of decision making. The exact date of the joining of the nations is unknown and it is one of the first and longest lasting participatory democracies in the world (“About the Haudenosaunee Confederacy” 2019).&#x0D; &#x0D;

Time, History and Memory: The Mythical Bongobondhu and the Birthing of Bangladeshi National Memories and Counter Memories

In this paper I focus on the social dimensions of historical remembering within the context of a mnemonic community to (re-)create myths about a particular past. Here, I explore the creation stories of the birthing of Bangladesh as a new nation as my case study. Specifically, I examine the national disputes raised between two major political parties – the Awami League and the Bangladesh National Party – over the (re-)interpretation and symbolic meaning of Bengali nationalist and “founding father” of Bangladesh, Sheik Mujiber Rahman or Bongobondhu. What I hope to exhibit at large is how collective memories are formed to (re-)produce cohesive (and seemingly impenetrable) national narratives.

Building Healthy Community Relationships Through Food Security and Food Sovereignty

ABSTRACTBackgroundFood insecurity disproportionately affects Indigenous Peoples and is linked to poor health outcomes. Indigenous Peoples’ food systems once sustained their thriving societies; however, colonial policies of displacement and imposed assimilation severed connections to Indigenous food systems and lands, disrupting identity, culture, and well-being.ObjectiveIn this article we share a grass-roots designed program that addresses food security and heeds Haudenosaunee teachings. The Story of Creation, the Great Law, and Ohénton Karihwatéhkwen (the words that come before all else) were the basis of the framework. The program acknowledges and uses community strengths and skills to enhance social connections and links with land and creation.MethodsThe program brought together interested and knowledgeable community members and stakeholders to discuss and better understand food security in the community. This group formed as an advisory group called Ieiénthos Akotióhkwa – ‘Planting Group’ who shaped the food security activities.ResultsThe program delivered workshops to build skills and share knowledge about food production and preparation. It targeted diverse participant interests and needs within an environment meant to nurture social connections. The program planted food-bearing trees and plants and created a seed library to create edible landscapes. We invited a broad scope of community knowledge- and skill-holders to share their talents with the community, to reinforce positive connections with each other, and to carry on cultural practices.ConclusionsChallenges included program sustainability linked to short-term funding and personnel turnover. Strengths involved using a culturally based framework that enhanced program coherence, and facilitated collaboration with local initiatives focused on well-being, practicing culture, and respecting the environment. Haudenosaunee teachings hold values and principles for a society that provides food for all. These teachings are a framework for a culturally rich program to support food security skills and resources, but also Indigenous cultural identity and practices.

Embracing Inherent Chaos

Abstract In The Soul of the Stranger, Joy Ladin centers nonbinary gender expression in the first chapter of Genesis. Ladin articulates the opportunity for nonbinary gender categories by moving beyond the creation of the binary and focusing on Adam (humanity), who represents the whole of humanity. This review expands and creates an entry point for interreligious dialogue with African diasporic religions, by acknowledging humanity as a part of the interconnected balance of nature and recognizing the influence the Babylonian creation story, Enuma Elish, had on the the deep primordial oceanic chaos described as tehon in the Torah.

Literary Narratives as a Tool for the Conservation of Indian Cultural Landscapes

The large majority of conservation and preservation projects tend to examine physical artefacts as ‘primary documents’ to effectively comprehend the multiple layers of a cultural landscape. There is the expectation that this analysis provides better insights into the transformation of these cultural landscapes over chronological time. However, besides built artefacts which undeniably carry history in their form and making, the existence of life events can also contribute towards an understanding of ‘palimpsestic reality’. On these lines, cultures, beliefs, and traditions are encoded within recurrent social practices such as celebrations, festivals and superstitions, thereby creating strands of oral traditions. These oral traditions pervade the histories of place and space, becoming the essence of place and serving as forms of communication of a shared traditional knowledge of art, ideas and cultural materials transferred between successive generations. Song and dialogue – reflecting the content of historical and mythical time – including folklore, poetry, prose, verses, chants and ballads, are central to these transmissions. Deep narratives also allow landscapes to initiate their own creation stories with respect to the transformation and adaptation to the particulars of site location, society, culture and traditional knowledge systems. Through focused ways of examining the historical geographies of traditional Indian landscapes, this paper seeks to understand the diverse ways in which resident populations express their complex relationships with these landscapes, associating with the transformations of these landscapes and reformulating their relationships to society.

Value creation: What matters most in Communities of Learning Practice in higher education

This study examines the phenomenon of value creation enabled by peers’ voluntary participation in Communities of Learning Practice (CoLPs) in higher education, with the aim to extract which experiences of learning community participation are considered valuable by learning community members. The participants were 27 international master students at a German university. Data were collected from participants’ written narratives-so called value creation stories. A systematic qualitative research approach was employed. Initially, we conducted a theory-driven content analysis to classify members’ attributed values. Subsequently, we performed an emergent data-driven thematic analysis to extrapolate the specifics of attributed values by participants. This study underscores the role of learning community members’ agency in value creation, by having community members, instead of external members, define value creation for themselves, as an individual and collective process and “outcome” enabled by participation in CoLPs.

EVE, THE EXISTING ABJECT (Postmodern Feminist Study toward the Story of Adam and Eve in Bible)

&lt;p&gt;The search for human creation story is very interesting to discuss if it is viewed with a different perspective from mainstream story. The story of human creation is commonly called the story of Adam and Eve. Often, the story we hear is implicated in the marginalization of woman through Eve because she was created from Adam’s ribs, and she was the cause of Adam’s sin by eating fruit which was forbidden by God. The story is confirmed in the Bible so that it can give rise to biased interpretations. This study will offer another perspective in reading the stories of Adam and Eve written in the scriptures from Genesis 2 and 3. The postmodern feminist theory will be employed in rereading the figure of Eve in the Bible. The idea of this theory is that Liyan as a way to exist. Hence, the figure of Eve is attributed to the figure of Liyan who has the ability to exist. Analysis of this Eve figure will be focused on Julia Kristeva’s view of the abject concept. Eventually, the concept of abject and Liyan stated in the postmodern feminist converged on the view that exclusion or non-existence is not entirely oppression which lead to the weakness figure. This is very closely related to the figure of Eve in the Bible so that the attribution in this study will lead to how Eve is seen as an existing abject.&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;The result of this study reveals that Eve cannot be seen simply by focusing on her weaknesses by failing to maintain a commitment not to violate God’s rules. Yet, her negligence becomes an opening for knowledge. Eve’s negligence has manifested the world we currently live in as well. Holy books should be read with a variety of more egalitarian and unbiased perspectives so that gender justice can be realized without the pretext of religion as a barrier.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;

Country Is Yarning to Me: Worldview, Health and Well-Being Amongst Australian First Nations People

Abstract Health inequalities experienced by Australian First Nations People are amongst the most marked in the world, with First Nations People dying some ten years earlier than non-Indigenous Australians. The failure of existing responses to health inequalities suggests new knowledges and questions that need to be explored. It is likely that these new knowledges sit outside of western research or practice paradigms. Through the Indigenous practice of yarning, the importance of worldview and Country emerged as an under-acknowledged social determinant of Australian First Nations People well-being. Yarning is a process of storytelling that involves both sound and silence. It requires embodied deep listening through which stories emerge that create new knowledge and understanding. We anchor our learning by re-telling John’s creation story, a story of healing through discovering his Aboriginal Worldview through reconnecting to Country. Country for First Nations People is more than a physical place; it is a place of belonging and a way of believing. We argue for the recognition of trauma, recognition of diversity and the use of yarning in social work practice. We conclude that reconnecting to Aboriginal Worldview provides hopeful insights into the well-being of Australia’s First Nations People and the social determinants of health.

Stories of creation

This article discusses the Norwegian media debate on surrogacy from 2010–2013. The debate was initiated by the ‘Volden-case’ where a Norwegian woman who had travelled to India to have surrogate twins could not return to Norway because the Norwegian authorities refused to give the children passports. At that time in 2010, surrogacy was not explicitly regulated by the existing Norwegian Biotechnology Act. According to the Norwegian Child and Parents Act of 1982, the woman who physically gives birth is the mother of the child. It soon became clear that, because this case existed in regulatory limbo, it required a legislative solution. At the time there was an intense and heated media debate. This was resolved when a temporary law was passed in 2013, pending a more permanent Biotechnology Act. During the process of revising the new Biotechnology Act in 2017–2018, we anticipated a continuation of the intense debate that occurred earlier. Surprisingly, this did not happen. In this article we aim to explain why. By analyzing the original 2010–2013 media debate using Hajer’s concepts of ‘discourse coalitions’ and ‘storylines’ (Hajer 2003), we identified three discourse coalitions which gathered around three storylines: the ‘storyline of biological parenthood’, the ‘storyline of equality’ and the ‘storyline on human trafficking’. The analysis demonstrated that the ‘storyline on human trafficking’ gained strength during the 2010–2013 debate, ultimately becoming hegemonic at the end of this period. Surprisingly, the other two discourse coalitions did not appear much in the media debate prior to the new law. This article discusses the lack of these discourse coalitions and concludes that the hegemonic nature of the ‘storyline on human trafficking’ may explain why the new Biotechnology Act did not spark heated debate.

REACTING TO CONSECRATING SCIENCE: WHAT MIGHT AMATEURS DO?

AbstractIn Consecrating Science: Wonder, Knowledge, and the Natural World, Lisa H. Sideris makes a compelling case that a new cosmology movement advocates for a new, universal, creation story grounded in the sciences. She fears the new story reinforces elite power structures and anthropocentrism and thus environmental degradation. Alternatively, she promotes genuine wonder which occurs in experiences of the natural world. As Sideris focuses on the likely logical outcome of the assumptions and arguments of the new cosmologies, she does not investigate whether and how people react to these new myths. I suggest that methods of documentary studies, applied to popular book reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, shed light on the ramifications of the new cosmologies among the general public. While many reviewers exhibit attitudes and behaviors that would concern Sideris, responses are far from univocal. Using this case as a guide, I suggest that attention to the experience of laypeople could contribute productively to religion and science research in general.