Marva J. Dawn (1948–2021)

Summary: A series of reflections on the texts of Genesis 1-3 focused not on questions of beginnings and the controversies that surround these chapters but on what they show us of God and how this may lead us into worship.

Over the last 150 years, the first chapters of Genesis have been a battleground between faith and science, and sometimes between competing views within the Christian community. Marva J. Dawn thinks all of this misses the central object of these chapters. She contends these show more chapters reveal the character of God and lead us into worship of this God.

There is the very text itself. She observes the liturgical character of Genesis 1:1-2:3 with its repetition of "God said," "it came to be," "it was good," and "evening and morning." with an ordering of creation and a culmination in God's "very good" and the rest of the seventh day.

This is a story in which we are formed. There is the creation of human beings as male and female. They are formed for care of the earth. They are formed for justice, with enough food and all the goods of creation for all. They are formed for sabbath-keeping. As God rests, so may we.

She considers the second of the accounts beginning with Genesis 2:4, with humans placed in a well-watered garden. Like a number of other scholars, Dawn notes that the woman is "helper", a term used of God 17 times and thus not a term of subordination. She notes the design of our sexuality to be a leaving, cleaving and becoming one between woman and man. She then explores the fall and the choice God gives that allows us to choose love, the nature of human sin, and its effects, and the mercy of a God who clothes the naked and ashamed couple in skins, foreshadowing a greater sacrifice.

She concludes with a summary of the questions Genesis does answer:

1. Who am I? What is my identity?
2. To whom do I belong? To whom do I pledge my loyalty?
3. Why am I here? What is my purpose in life?
4. What is wrong with the world? Why is there so much disorder?
5. How can it be fixed? What is the remedy for sin and evil?
6. Where am I headed? What is my goal?
7. How does everything fit together? Is there a master story?
8. How can I survive? When the forces of evil assail me, how do I find the power to protect myself?
9. What do I respect? By what values do I live?
10. Why should I live? What gives meaning to my existence?
11. How can there be a future when the world is in such a mess? How do I find hope?
12. What is my center? Who is our God?

The Epilogue to the book is a confession of sin and faith based on her reading of Genesis, a confession she first introduced at InterVarsity's 2002 Following Christ conference in Atlanta (I was there!).

Dawn's book is reflection, not polemic. Along the way, she helps us recognize the important emphases of Genesis without descending into controversy or weighty exegesis. She opens our eyes to the wisdom and beauty and grace and truth of God in his creative work, and the beginnings of his dealings with human fallenness. She leads us into worship and response to what God has done in a series of short but rich reflections. I would commend this as a first text to read for any interested in the message of Genesis 1-3, to focus us on foundational and formative truths rather than the incidental concerns that have come to occupy our attentions. show less

I’ve been disappointed by devotional literature more times than I can recall. The whole lot of it seems too mushy and theologically ungrounded. Then I found Marva Dawn.

The concept underlying this book is simple: Dawn wrote a four or five page devotion on each of the 31 verses of Isaiah 40. The execution, however, was profound. Dawn used her knowledge of Hebrew to bring out a number of subtle nuances that English readers would miss. She paired this with honest personal experience to create show more a devotional that is both poignant and theologically intelligent.

This is the first devotional work I’ve read one chapter at a time. You need to meditate on each verse as you work your way through.

To Walk and Not Faint rises above the mediocrity in the genre today. show less

A manuscript of the author's Schaff Lecture on Christianity and the Powers.

The author begins by exploring the concept of the powers and principalities and traces out modern exploration of the theme. She offers insightful and beneficial critiques to Wink's magisterial trilogy in terms of its emphasis on nonviolent resistance in socio-political terms as well as the denial of the embodiment of the Powers.

The author offers a persuasive case that Paul in 2 Corinthians 12 spoke of Jesus' work as show more coming to completion in Paul through weakness; in fact, God as "tabernacling" with believers in their weakness to overcome the forces arrayed against them. She then applies the concept to churches as powers in and of themselves, perhaps corrupted by the appeal of worldliness in its projections of strength, and better off glorifying God in weakness. She engages in a productive expansion on the work of the church as seen in Acts 2:42-47 as reflecting how the church could grow outside of the cult of leadership and strength prominent in much of Evangelicalism. Later on she also spends time working through Ephesians 6:10-18, considering them less in terms of "defense" as is commonly done, but with Yoder Neufeld seeing how God can work through the believer in the manifestation of the various elements of the "armor of God" to actively resist the Powers and uphold truth.

She is highly influenced by Jacques Ellul and quotes him extensively and frequently. Definitely a thought-provoking and well-argued work, and challenging in terms of the current status quo within many churches. show less

Keeping the Sabbath Wholly is a window into how Marva Dawn practices the Sabbath. She focuses on the four elements of the subtitle (ceasing, resting, embracing, feasting) as critical attitudes for robust Sabbath-keeping.

The book is filled with personal anecdotes and stories that give the reader ideas to integrate into their own practice. She offers her suggestions without any hint of legalistic arm-twisting: something that’s plagued our understanding of Sabbath for too long.

I was a little show more disappointed by this book, but that was likely because I misunderstood the genre. The first book I read by Dawn was Powers, Weakness, and the Tabernacling of God, an excellent theological treatise on Paul’s theology of the powers. The next book was To Walk and Not Faint, a devotional on Isaiah 40 that integrated solid exegesis into each meditation. I started this book expecting an exegetical foundation for Sabbath-keeping that was not to be found. She confined her writing to her own experience.

While it’s still a good book, but this married man often had difficulty identifying with the life-examples of a single woman. show less