God, the Bible, and Human Consciousness by Nancy Tenfelde Clasby (review)

732 CHRISTIANITY AND LITERATURE with the epistemology of art (how does it speak truth, if at all?) and the ethics of it (how does art represent or provide claims and instruction about the Good?). The mind engaged in aesthetic experience itself weaves between these concerns, unable to decide between them because it is always engaged with both of them at once. O'Reilly gives us a renewed sense of the metaphysical reality that subtends our experience of beauty, explaining in the process why the contemplation of art is essential to the full realization of human life even as art and literature have not been, and perhaps cannot be, resolved into sciences (perfect disciplines) of their own. James Matthew Wilson Villanova University God, the Bible, and Human Consciousness. ByNancy Tenfelde Clasby. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. ISBN 978-0-230-60543-5. Pp. xii + 255. $79.95. Nancy Tenfelde Clasby's work is an attempt to correct a perceived imbalance within biblical interpretation. In her view, logos has become the dominant matrix for understanding the meaning of scripture, at the expense of mythos, a complex symbolic language that can provide "a route to understanding that is orderly, coherent, and deeply meaningful" (2). While logos, with its emphasis on truths that are "literal, univocal, objective, verifiable and limited" (2) is valuable, Clasby argues, it needs to be balanced by the less appreciated mythos, the means by which, through human history, the highest cultural insights were encoded in ritual and the arts. Despite the fact that logos has become the prevailing system for codifying experience, mythos is more useful for a consideration of the "play of energies, attitudes, intentions, vectors of force that comprise the nonquantified aspect of experience" (5). "Mythos reflects a world in process, living and dying" (5) in a way that logos cannot. Clasby claims that "when speech, worship and the arts arrived together, they constellated a new and distinctively human awareness of reality. Symbolic representation brought about an axial change in consciousness" (24). She also argues, in support of mythos, that the contemporary environment, with recent developments in the cognitive sciences, understandings of narrative structure, and conclusions in myth theory concerning a monomyth that pervades many cultures, it is easy to conclude that there is an ongoing relevance for the concept of mythos. After these introductory chapters, Clasby begins a broad discussion of the biblical canon, emphasizing the symbolic qualities of each book or collection of books to affirm her thesis regarding the value of mythos. With but a tenuous adherence to mainstream, systematic Christian theology, Clasby draws on a wide BOOK REVIEWS 733 variety of supporting sources to flesh out her assertions regarding the symbolic value of the book of Genesis through to the book of Revelation. Some chapters are more fruitful and engaging in this respect than others. But, even when she slips into a fairly prosaic recounting of the well-known narratives of the Old Testament, there are enough bright points of insight to sustain the reader's interest in the task that Clasby has set herself. Her treatment of the New Testament is better still. Chapters 1 to 7 deal with the Old Testament. Chapter 1 includes some detailed material concerning creation myths, with an especially interesting treatment of the relationship between Adam and Eve in the Genesis account. Chapter 2 compares the relationship between Cain and Abel with other examples of twins in mythology. There is also an effective treatment of the flood myth and the Tower of Babel narrative, which Derrida saw as "deconstructing the powerful monolith of universal meaning" (49-50). Chapter 3 is less satisfactory, questioning the literal existence of Abraham and then making reference to Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph in a manner which brings forth few fresh insights. Chapter 4 discusses the Exodus narrative and includes some analysis of the symbolic nature of the battle between God and Rahab, a water dragon (86). Clasby's momentary excursion into the work of Martin Heidegger and her attempt to correlate the biblical account with a form ofexistential exodus is less convincing. Chapter 5 deals with the kings and the prophets, and includes an engaging section on the relationship between Saul and David...