KNOCK AT THE SKY: Seeking God in Genesis after Losing Faith in the Bible. By Liz Charlotte Grant. Foreword by Sarah Bessey. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2025. Xxvi + 242 pages.
There are common threads shared by many people who grew up in evangelical circles and then for a variety of reasons lost faith in the Bible. These threads might include questions of science, history, or theology. The commitment to the doctrine of the inerrancy of Scripture often stands at the center of the discontent. However, at least for some, a reexamination of the Bible, using a different set of lenses can bring about a new appreciation for the messages found in the Bible. While I am a post-evangelical (a reality that came about long before the term emerged), my movement out of evangelicalism and my issues with the Bible were gradual enough that my deconstruction was not as traumatic as it has been for some. That may be because my commitment to inerrancy appears to have been rather shallow. Nevertheless, others have had to experience more radical changes in their perspectives on the Bible. For some that has meant rejecting the Bible completely but others have found ways of discovering truths present in Scripture even if their approach has changed.
Robert D. Cornwall
Among those who have rediscovered truths present in Scripture after changing their approach is Liz Charlotte Grant. Grant is an essayist and author, who brings a new set of lenses to the stories found in the Book of Genesis in her book Knock at the Sky. In this book Grant brings her gifts as a storyteller to stories found in Genesis, beginning with the creation story and moving to Jacob’s divine encounters. Much of the book examines the story of Abraham, who is a central figure in the biblical story, and her engagement with it is quite fruitful.
Grant confesses to having once been a good evangelical who aced every Bible class in her Christian high school and private Christian college (Wheaton), where she pursued a minor in Bible along with her major in creative writing. She was totally committed to the evangelical message, experiencing complete certitude in her beliefs. That is until they no longer worked for her. While her religious certainty collapsed and she began to question her faith, she eventually returned to the Bible. As we see expressed in Knock at the Sky, she returned to the Bible with much less certainty but a lot more curiosity. In this book, Grant brings together biblical stories with the resources of science, history, and the arts. It is in this context that she rediscovered faith. She writes that she still believes the Bible can tell us “what God is like, even to introduce us to the Creator. But I read the Bible differently than I used to. … I am determined to be patient and humble. I myself am a learner, not a scholar” (p. xx). This is a good approach that we ought to take as we approach Scripture, especially if we’re not biblical scholars.
Before getting to the chapters in which Grant engages with the stories found in Genesis, she offers an introduction “on Genesis and Methodology.” She provides a brief overview of the Book of Genesis, including proposals concerning authorship. She speaks of the use of midrash as an interpretive tool as well as her decision to engage in the practice of “eisegesis.” Now, her definition and use of the term are rather different from the way I’ve understood the term (my understanding is that this is a problematic approach that reads into the text things not there. However, I understand the value of trying to read between the lines even if such interpretations are speculative and not conclusive). She also speaks of the question of God’s gender or lack thereof and the attempts to import science into Genesis.
With this foundation laid, Grant takes us to the text of Genesis itself. The first chapter is titled “First Contact.” In this chapter, Grant reflects on the Creation story. She seeks to place it in a historical context and steers clear of trying to make it fit with science. She suggests that the “posture I suggest we hold as we read the book of Genesis: I suggest we read the sacred text upside down. … Approach the words of God as if we’re standing on our heads. A ritual like this could remind us to expect to-be-surprised” (pp. 13-14). Moving on from the question of origins, in Chapter 2, titled “Plural,” she continues with the creation story, focusing on the creation of humanity. She concludes that the Bible is a “reflection of the collaborative nature of God” (p. 29). Chapter three is titled “The Loaded Gun.” Here Grant speaks of how things went awry with the divine-human relationship. As such, she speaks of God’s allowance of free will as seen in the Eden story. Along the way, humans must deal with doubt, which leads to “many transitions that demolish, reassemble. And reframe their spirituality” (p. 46). It is the way we grow. If Chapter 4 focuses on doubt and sin, Chapter 5, which is titled “Doomsday,” focuses on divine judgment. Here she addresses questions that unsettle many, especially with visions of a God of Wrath. But, since this is an exploration of Genesis, something must be said about the story of Noah. The final story of what is known as prehistory is the story of Nimrod and the story of Babel.
When we reach Chapter 6, we move to the story of Abraham and Sarah and their descendants. This chapter is titled “White Noise,” and it focuses on Abram’s departure from his homeland. Abram and Sarai leave because God called, and that was enough. But “to grow, Abram and Sarai must abandon the land on which they are planted. To find a home, they must wander. Or at least they cannot stay” (p. 97). In Chapter 7 we get to the promise God made to Abram that he would be the father of nations, but at the time of the call, he and Sarai were old and did not have children. Therefore, they had few prospects of having a child. Grant points out the importance in this story of including Sarai, even if God doesn’t speak directly to her. But of course, there is also the story of Hagar. Chapter 8 is titled “Wasteland” and it also speaks of Sarah’s barrenness together with the way Hagar is dragged into the story. As we continue with the story, Chapter 9 is titled “Protest Art.” Here she explores the story of the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah and Abraham’s protest to God, as he intercedes with God on behalf of these cities. While Abraham takes an active role on behalf of these cities, when it comes to his sons Isaac and Ishmael, he is passive. Thus, “Abraham may have been called righteous for his faith, but the narrative shows off his faithlessness” (p. 156).
Part of the Genesis story, as Grant explores and comments on it, concerns the question of the promise of descendants to Abraham, together with Sarah’s barrenness and the forced surrogacy of Hagar. All of these components of the story raise important questions about patriarchy and God’s role in it. In the end, Sarah has a child, and Hagar and Ishmael are sent packing. Abraham is essentially redeemed but at what cost? Then in Chapter 10, titled “Holy Terror,” we come to the story of Abraham’s response to God’s request that he sacrifice Isaac on Mount Moriah. Both the divine mercy shown ultimately to Hagar and Ishmael, and that which God shows to Isaac raises in Grant’s mind important questions about God and how we perceive God. Was Abraham wrong about what he thought he heard or was God wrong? These are perennial questions.
The final chapter of this book takes us from the story of Isaac and his encounter with his father to the story of Jacob. Chapter 11 is titled “Stranglehold of God.” Grant writes that her favorite patriarch is Jacob, who engages in a wrestling match with God. She writes that she resonates with the idea of God-wrestling. In her forty years of being a Christian, she has witnessed and experienced many things that have caused her grief, including the use of the Bible as a blunt weapon. But, the story of Jacob wrestling with God in the dirt gives her a sense of hope. She writes that God welcomed Jacob’s anger and the head-on collision that Jacob experienced with God. “And the result of this wrestling match is sight. Like Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, and Hagar before him, Jacob’s struggle resulted in seeing God face to face. He beheld God and lived to tell the story to us. He was blessed and he survived. But a fight with God also left its mark. Jacob walked away limping?” (p. 199). She concludes that “doubt is easy; we need only to retreat. Faith, on the other hand, is sweat. Faith requires we dodge the uppercut, pin down the flailing arms of the opponent, roll in the dust, and yell down our defeat. Faith requires waiting up all night. Only then will we witness the rising sun and, by its light, the face of God” (p. 200). That is her story. She experienced doubt, but in the end found a path of faith, which is the difficult path Jacob discovered.
Like Liz Grant, I find Genesis fascinating and enlightening. While she does not engage with the final set of stories that tell the story of Joseph and the reunion of the family, the stories she does engage with are rather powerful. She invites us to ponder the creation story in all its complexity. Then moves to the stories of Abraham, who can act courageously at one moment and passively at another point in the story. Each of these stories, especially the stories of Abraham and Jacob, is compelling. They have a certain timelessness to them making them relevant to our time. In part that is because these stories remind us that the journey of faith is often difficult. Liz Grant found a way of weaving a variety of stories and experiences together with the biblical story to bring that story alive. Knock at the Sky: Seeking God in Genesis after Losing Faith in God. This is a good reminder that one need not throw away the Bible when traditional interpretations fail. We can still seek God in the pages of Scripture but with a different set of lenses.
This review originally appeared on BobCornwall.com.
Robert D. Cornwall is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Now retired from his ministry at Central Woodward Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of Troy, Michigan, he serves as Minister-at-Large in Troy. He holds a Ph.D. in Historical Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary and is the author of numerous books including his latest “Second Thoughts about the Second Coming: Understanding the End Times, Our Future, and Christian Hope” coauthored with Ronald J. Allen. His blog Ponderings on a Faith Journey can be found here.
