Genesis (Berit Olam series)

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Summary: Literary Criticism in the Service of Liberation
Review: While I as a liberation theologian am not usually enthusiastic about literary criticism, Cotter employs it in the service of liberation in this commentary. In the capsule summary of the book in the Eisenbraun's catalog, they state that he traces God's favoritism towards the oppressed throughout the narratives, and indeed this is one of the main foci of the commentary. He starts right out, in page xxv of the Introduction, letting us know that he feels that Israel relates to God in the OT as "One who freely intervenes in history in order to save those in need." Once we realize that this is the motivation for God's actions, we can discern the reasons for his interventions in the narratives of Genesis. For example, in what are usually called the "Patriarchal" narratives of chapters 12-50, Cotter (correctly so, I believe) perceives that the focus of these stories is really on the oppressor/oppressed pairings of the women and children--Hagar and Sarah, Ishmael and Isaac, Jacob and Esau, and Rachel and Leah. As he says on page 87: "These chapters then, when read from this perspective, teach us what is central to God's way of being in the world . . . salvation--creating a place for Hagar, the alien, the homeless woman--for central to God's way of being in the world is justice." And again on 137: "always at the heart of who God is and of the way God relates to the world is justice, care of the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. So, central to every story in which God is a character are Hagar and Ishmael, or someone like them."
These important connotations of words that are so frequently utilized by Christians such as salvation and justice are sorely needed in these days of abundance of superficial, self-centered Christianity. By reading, learning and incorporating Cotter's work we can gain a fuller appreciation of the meaning of these and other theological words in terms of God's orientation towards those on the margins of society, the voiceless, ostracized, and victimized. We learn that God intervenes in history on their behalf. The implication would be that those who claim to love and follow that same God need to work on behalf of justice for these same oppressed.