Caleb's Eye: A Spy's Journey through Genesis
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What He did was the oddest thing: He brought Abram outside to look at the night sky, and then He repeated His promise of descendants in that most unlikely place. The vision He gave Abram of the sky was not a matter of seeing such an "innumerable" collection of lights as it was of seeing an innumerable collection of "lights". Abram was not being invited to count the stars; he was being invited to measure them, to estimate them in terms of importance, significance, value, worth. It was the quality, not the quantity, of Abram’s descendants that was the point of the vision. He would have descendants like the stars, and the quantity was not the focal point. There are only about 6000 stars that can be seen by the naked eye on a perfect night, quite countable if one is careful. This is a number that was exceeded by Abram’s descendants within five or six generations. The number of actual stars in the sky visible by any means exceeds the total number of people in the human race through all history. The point is not the number, not how many there would be, but who they would be. In fact, when he looked at the sky that night he was experiencing revelation in its most basic form. He had looked at the night sky in all its glory perhaps thousands of times during his life, without the hindrance of streetlights. No doubt he carried a lot of Mesopotamian religious baggage about the stars and the various gods and myths about them. But this night, when God brought him outside his tent, he connected the dots for the first time: the God who was standing by him and speaking with him was the one who created those lights. He had heard the story in Genesis 1 recited throughout his whole life, the oral tradition, and now it fell into place, if not for the first time, then for the first time in this way. He saw through the words to the glory of what they meant. That is where this faith came from. He knew God could keep His promise about a son because this was the God who invented stars, this was a God beyond what he had imagined that he now imagined for the first time. He was a God who could call into existence things that did not exist. God made the sky into something of a sacrament to Abram. From that time on, every time he looked at the night sky he would remember God’s promise to give him descendants. Every time he looked at the sky he would be reminded that the God who claimed to have made those stars had also claimed that He would give such descendants to Abram, descendants who were like the stars in glory. Abram’s children would be children who were like the stars. From the viewpoint of an ancient Mesopotamian man like Abram, God was promising that Abram’s children would be like the gods.
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About the Book
This book is a commentary in the form of a journal. It is meant to be something like a diary kept by a tourist or a spy of his travels in a strange land, recording questions and observations and opinions on everything he sees for other travelers on the same road. It could be also called a dialogue because the author records the conversation that he has with Genesis as he moves along, and the conversation he has with himself in the privacy of his motel room. In both ways it is the account of a journey with the idea that it may be of some use to others traveling the same road. The author is writing as an amateur to other amateurs. He is not a professional theologian nor a biblical scholar, and while his intent is to think as deeply and truly as he can, he is not doing so as a professional. There are several advantages that an amateur may have over a professional in a case like this. First the amateur can be much bolder in what he questions and in the answers he considers. The professional always has something on the line, always something at risk, namely his reputation. He cannot venture far off the beaten path without being in some danger of losing his respectability. The amateur, on the other hand, has little respectability to lose and little reputation to risk. What Dr. Boswell would not be able to risk in mathematical writing he can be quite at liberty to risk in this project. It can be exhilarating. Secondly the amateur has a much friendlier connection with the average reader. The amateur is something of an equal with the average reader, though presumably with something to say worth the hearing. Since they are introduced as equals, the reader can feel safer, less threatened, more entitled to join in the conversation that the author is trying to create. With a professional author there is always the sense of obligation that one should not argue back with the scholar; only another scholar has the credentials to join in their conversation, and the rest of us must sort it all out as best we can. But with this book there is no need of restraint; anyone can be drawn in to the discussion, anyone can feel entitled to disagree, with impunity. It can be exhilarating. This book is not meant to be a "Bible made simple" book. It is written by someone who loves to think and is written for others who love to think. It is written by someone who is not timid about difficult questions and is written for others who have no fear of such things. But most of all it is a book written for the pure joy of the thing and for those who might share that joy.
About the Author
Carroll Boswell was born in Texas and was raised as a Southern Baptist in the deep south. He became serious about faith in college while attending a Congregational church and then a Presbyterian church. For a time, Carroll attended Covenant Seminary in St. Louis and though his experiences at that seminary were entirely positive, it became clear to him that he was not called to the ministry. He pursued the discovery of his actual calling over many years and down many blind alleys. His professional degree is a PhD in mathematics, but he always pursued theology and biblical studies as an amateur in the older sense of the word - as one who pursues something from love. Carroll served as an elder in two very different congregations: first in a Presbyterian church (PCA) as a ruling elder for four years, and then again in a non-denominational charismatic church. Currently he is a member of the parish of the Episcopal church in which his wife is the priest. Carroll and Kathryn have been married 38 years as of 2011 and have ten children ranging in age from 13 to 37. They spent ten years living on what had been an Amish farm, without electricity or plumbing, raising sheep and children and a garden. Carroll brings his rather checkered denominational past into full use in his approach to the Bible, which tends to fall in between the various theological and denominational schools. His training in the mathematical sciences may be noticed in his organizational style. His home is in upstate New York, where - despite the climate - he spends as much time at gardening as he can spare. When he is not studying the Bible or gardening, he enjoys reading nearly any type of book and writing poetry.