Dr. Dru Johnson Publishes ‘The Universal Story: Genesis 1-11’

Dr. Dru Johnson, an associate professor of biblical and religious studies at King’s and a Templeton research fellow at the University of St Andrews, has a new book out in March: The Universal Story: Genesis 1-11 (Lexham Press). Part of the Transformative Word series edited by biblical scholars Craig Bartholomew and David Beldman, The Universal Story provides an accessible introduction to the theological themes in the first chapters of Genesis.

In The Universal Story, Johnson draws from his ten years of teaching and writing on Genesis to help lay readers “see how this respected-but-often-neglected part of Genesis is central to capital-E Everything, and especially the gospel of Jesus and his kingdom.”

The book’s title is meant to elicit multiple readings, Johnson says. “Genesis 1–11 is the story of the universe and its creation for the purpose of humans in community with God. But, it’s also universal in scope, setting up all the language and concepts that will be used in the rest of Scripture, including God’s kingdom, His people, and His plans for everything and everyone—forks to dolphins.”

Johnson lays out these big picture themes of Genesis 1-11 while introducing readers to the work of other scholars. As with the other titles in the Transformative Word series, Johnson’s volume also includes questions to facilitate personal or group study.

This semester, Johnson assigned The Universal Story to students in his Introduction to Hebrew Literature course. “There’s so much packed into those first chapters of Genesis that I don’t have time to unpack in class,” Johnson says. The book both reinforces topics he raises in lectures and goes deeper into issues of sexuality, labor laws, evolutionary theory, family planning, environmentalism and ecology, just war, and genocide.

The Universal Story: Genesis 1-11 will release on March 7, 2018.