Genesis in Space and Time: The Flow of Biblical History

by Francis A. Schaeffer

This volume is exclusively focused on the first eleven chapters of Genesis with Dr. Schaeffer setting out to challenge the view that Genesis is a book full of myths "and shows how the first eleven chapters of Genesis stand as a solid, space-time basis for answering the tough questions posed by modern man" (quote from the back of the book). Essentially, this book is an abbreviated commentary on the first eleven chapters of Genesis with special emphasis made on specific locations that are named and cross-references to places where later historical characters seem to emphasize the historicity of the accounts of Genesis.

Honestly, I doubt that a true skeptic will be convinced by Schaeffer's work. While it can be faith-building to those who already believe, cross-referencing to Jesus' affirmation of the flood won't do much good to convince those who don't believe in Jesus.

Aside from that, I found myself irritated at times by Schaeffer's tendency to chase theological side-points. While those thoughts may have been good for sermons based on those side-points—though preferably drawn from a passage where it is the main point, not one on the peripheral—I found those one – three page jaunts a little much, since it was so far outside the scope of his thesis.

There were good points to this book. Often, Schaeffer said something that I hadn't thought of before, or said it in a way that I hadn't heard it put. But, I'm not convinced that those bright moments outweighed trudging through extra pages of Schaeffer's theology that didn't really need to be there in the first place.

Here's how I would recommend this book: If you're a Genesis freak and want to read everything out there about Genesis, pick it up. Or, if you've never read anything about Genesis, this might be a nice primer—though, don't take his word for everything. You'll probably find yourself disagreeing with him at times, as I did. But if you're not at either of those extremes, this is probably one that you'll be just as happy passing on.

The Editors do not advocate everything taught by the authors of the books we review. Like us, these authors are fallible humans and those who choose to read these books should measure them by the bible, the one true standard.