Knock at the Sky
Seeking God in Genesis after Losing Faith in the Bible
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In the beginning was a work of art.
What does Bible study look like after inerrancy? Do you have to give up studying Scripture when you no longer believe in its literal interpretation? Can you still believe this book is sacred even while renegotiating your relationship to the church? In Knock at the Sky, Liz Charlotte Grant offers compelling answers to these questions and more in this deeply personal commentary on the book of Genesis.
Braiding together encounters with the natural world, Jewish midrash, and art criticism, Grant makes familiar Sunday school stories strange and offers a fresh vision for reading Scripture after deconstruction. For those who have known the book of Genesis as a weapon in the culture wars, Grant interprets the Bible's inspired book of beginnings as a work of art. Lyrical, insightful, and highly original, Knock at the Sky offers readers a capacious model for seeking God through Scripture even as one's faith continues to evolve.
"In this book, you too have permission to question the sacred without fearing . . . unbelief. Knock loudly. . . . Reject answers that do not admit complication. Seek the resonance at the base of the story. The seeking is the point. Because there, in your wandering, God is."
Associated Church Press Best of the Church Press Awards - Books - Nonfiction (includes curriculum) Honorable Mention (2024)
About this Author
Liz Charlotte Grant is an award-winning essayist whose work has been published in The Revealer, Sojourners, Brevity, Christian Century, Christianity Today, Hippocampus, and elsewhere. She also writes The Empathy List, a popular newsletter that has been nominated for a Webby two years running. She lives in Colorado.
Reviews
Lynn Domina in The Englewood Review of Books
"Knock at the Sky: Seeking God in Genesis After Losing Faith in the Bible by Liz Charlotte Grant is one of the most enjoyable books I've read in a long time. The writing is engaging and accessible, and the content is as wide-ranging and imaginative as that in any book about the Bible I'm familiar with. . . . Grant is obviously interested in a multitude of topics, but her real intellectual skill is in understanding how they're connected. . . . That's how most readers will experience Knock at the Sky, I suspect, with delight."
The Revealer
"A refreshing read and one well suited for former evangelicals or anyone who wants to question what they were taught about the Bible without throwing it out entirely. . . . Grant is a storyteller, a phenomenal one at that."
Foreword Reviews
"Knock at the Sky is an imaginative, inspiring exploration of Genesis. Defying conventional interpretations and searching for deeper links between ideas, Grant shifts from one revelation to the next in a seamless fashion, her prose precise, poetic, and inventive."
Publishers Weekly
"Grant's prose is often poetic . . . she constructs a convincing and impassioned case for the value of creative interpretation, suggesting that 'curiosity is the most reverent stance a human can take.' It's a must-read for progressive Christians eager to see the Bible through a new lens."
"Knock at the Sky isn't apologetics for progressives; it's a much needed half-step over from the tightly managed paths of your past into the wildflowers off the trail, closer to the trees, with a view on the vast horizon still ahead. There is room to breathe here."
--Sarah Bessey, author of Field Notes for the Wilderness: Practices for an Evolving Faith, from the foreword
"If you're tired of predictable prose from cautious Christian writers, check out Liz Charlotte Grant's theopoetic work. It's wonderful to read someone who knows what language can do when it's let off the leash."
--Barbara Brown Taylor, author of Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others and An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith
"Never have I read a book quite like this one. Liz Charlotte Grant opens a door to wonder and awe, drawing from science and art, history and myth, to create nuanced readings of Genesis. From dark matter to holy lightning, Grant invites us to contemplate cosmic questions and explore the unknown and unknowable. No matter where we find ourselves in faith and doubt, we are free to find something new in these pages, something quite like magic."
--Cait West, author of Rift: A Memoir of Breaking Away from Christian Patriarchy
"This book is not like the others. In this truly fresh take on Genesis, Grant weaves together biblical scholarship, science, and Jewish midrash to introduce readers to the depth and complexity of Genesis as truly adult literature. For those who are interested enough in the Bible to not want the same old same old, here's your reintroduction to a book that has been mined for meaning for over two millennia. Let Grant be your guide."
--Pete Enns, author of How the Bible Actually Works and founder of The Bible for Normal People
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