Loving and Letting: A Constructive Reading of Genesis 1

Abstract

This essay evaluates possible meanings of God's creative ‘let’ in Genesis 1 in order to evaluate how God's generative love of creation forms a paradigm for human love. Beginning with the work of philosopher John Haugeland, who gives four possible meanings of letting‐be in his reading of Heidegger, this essay argues that creation is best understood in terms of Haugeland's model of letting‐be as enabling, in which what is created are conditions of possibility rather than determined outcomes. Understanding God's relationship to creation as making‐possible then sets the stage for characterizing right human relations as superabundantly generative rather than simply the absence of conflict.