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WHO'S IN IT THIS WEEK?

Leon R. Kass, Stephen Mitchell, Elaine H. Pagels, Naomi H. Rosenblatt, Jean-Pierre M. Ruiz, Marianne Meye Thompson, and Robin Darling Young participate this week. Among others, there is a Buddhist and a Catholic priest, a biochemist and a psychologist, a translator and a medical doctor.


WANT TO KNOW MORE?

This Web piece also has information about ordering a set of videocassettes, audiocassettes, the companion book, or the Resource Guide. The project contributors have written some of the best books available on Genesis. Check out References.


THIS WEEK IN THE RESOURCE GUIDE:

(Page numbers refer to the hard copy version.) Robert Coles examines how the temptations of modern life relate to the temptations facing Adam and Eve. (p. 44)

Hear from a variety of thinkers -- including Augustine, Maimonides and 20th century writers -- on what was lost and what was gained when the apple was eaten. (p 42)

Elaine Pagels discusses how different religions have interpreted the story of Adam and Eve down through the ages. (p. 38)

If you are already in a Genesis Discussion Group of your own, don't miss this week's discussion questions and group activities.

You can download the Resource Guide from this site or sign up to have chapters emailed right to your mailbox each week.
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THIS WEEK'S PROGRAM: TEMPTATION

Temptation

This week's PBS program examines the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Read the story of "Temptation" in your Bible in Genesis, Chapters 2-3, or hear Alfre Woodard tell it on this Web site.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
"The serpent asks the Bible's first question and produces the first conversation." -- Dr. Leon Kass of the University of Chicago

QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK:
1. In what recent Broadway revival was a Washington Senators baseball fan tempted not by an apple, but by a baseball and the promise of a world championship?

2. What actress played the part of Lola in the revival?

(Answers at bottom of page.)

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
  • What did humans gain and what did humans lose when the apple was eaten?
  • What was Adam and Eve's sin?
  • Are we bound by Adam and Eve's sin or are we masters of our own fates?
  • What are the seductions and temptations that the modern world offers?

Check out the Bulletin Board and add your own comments and read what others have to say.

Are you watching the GENESIS series with your kids? With your parents? Try some activities from the Guide (p. 33 in the hard copy version).

Answer to Question #1:

In 1994, "Damn Yankees" was revived on Broadway.

Answer to Question #2:

Bebe Neuwirth played the part of Lola in the show "Damn Yankees."

Before you leave this Web piece, please email us at genesis@wnet.org and let us know ...
  • How did you find this site?
  • What kinds of things would you like to see on this site in the weeks ahead?
  • Are you in a discussion group?
  • How did your group start?
  • Please tell us about your group and its discussions.

WHAT OTHER DISCUSSION GROUPS ARE TALKING ABOUT:

The Baltimore-based Institute for Christian and Jewish Studies has organized Genesis discussion groups in 25 local Jewish and Christian congregations and parishes. Before the groups began, the Institute sponsored a training session for group facilitators. The facilitators watched excerpts from "The First Murder" and quickly discovered tensions worthy of careful conversation. In the Moyers program, John Barth and others discussed a God who played favorites, a God who, for no apparent reason, prefers Abel's offering and rejects Cain's, a God who appears arbitrary and untrustworthy. Yet this God is not the God whom several participants in the Baltimore group recognized from their own experience. They described their God as a more gracious and just God, a God known from broader Jewish and Christian tradition as trustworthy and good. The debate expanded to ask which God is the real God. Often the God we think we know is not the God we meet in the Bible, which can be a disarming discovery. What sources do we have for knowing God? Could there be a gap between the God of scripture and the God known to a worshipping community? Is it responsible to adhere strictly to the text, or are Cain and Abel best understood in light of subsequent scripture and tradition? These were good questions for demonstrating from the beginning how brave and patient one must be to undertake group discussion.
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