203: Genesis, Part 2--The Flood




Mormon Matters show

Summary: In this two-part episode, we continue our series on the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible by examining one of scripture’s most difficult stories--God choosing to unleash a flood designed to kill all living beings on the planet except a select few. In this episode, panelists David Bokovoy, Tom Roberts, and Brian Hauglid examine the scriptural text itself, including the interwoven (and quite different) J and P sources and the stories and traditions that they borrow from. The also explore takes and angles on the story presented by LDS thinkers, the wider Christian world, and Islam. What theological or devotional value can we find in this story? How can we still honor the text’s mythic truths even as its cosmological worldview and claims about a global deluge fly in the face of scientific evidence? Can open up room in LDS discourse for non-literal but still theologically uplifting readings of such claims as it must be understood as a universal flood because the earth needed to be "baptized"?