The phenomenology of symbol

Genesis I and II

Frank K. Flinn

pp. 223-249

in: William Hamrick (ed), Phenomenology in practice and theory, Berlin, Springer, 1985

Abstract

The following essay, which is divided into three parts, is a phenomenological interpretation of the two accounts of creation which open the Book of Genesis. In the first part below, I discuss the problem of interpretation stemming from the current use of the term "myths" for the creation accounts. In the second part, I examine a problem peculiar to modernity — critical consciousness along with the demystification and demythologization which may block us from interpreting symbolic discourse. These two parts then provide a dialectical framework for the third — the phenomenological approach to the texts about the "Beginning" in the Book of Genesis.