Occasionally, the internet yields good fruit, and one of those is the opportunity to meet different sorts of people we would never encounter otherwise, especially if they live overseas. The digital world introduced me to Rev. David Runcorn, a retired Anglican priest in the UK. We recently learned of each other’s work and connected via Facebook and email. A prolific writer, Runcorn’s latest book is Playing in the Dust: A Pilgrimage with the Creation Stories.
Understanding who Runcorn is provides a good frame for appreciating his work. Runcorn was trained at London Bible College and St. John’s College, Nottingham before being ordained at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Over the years, he has served in a variety of ministry posts, including vicar (pastor), chaplain, and college teacher. As a minister serving the church, and a teacher of pastoral theology, spirituality, and evangelism, his books are pastorally oriented. That is, he pastors his readers, as much as teaches them. That is true for Playing in the Dust as well.
When I first received my copy, I sat down to read the whole thing straight through. But I quickly realized the book is best read in small bites. Comprising 32 brief chapters (2-3 pages each), it might serve as a daily devotional for a month. Or better yet, it might foster daily dinner conversation. The book struck me as a cross between biblical commentary, devotional, and hermeneutic primer. As such, it encourages deeper discussion than the usual devotional, and yet it’s not a textbook.
More specifically, the book explores fresh readings of the creation stories in Genesis. Runcorn prompts the reader to revisit standard interpretations and consider new ways of seeing what these stories offer. For example, church teachings on the creation stories often center a fall from innocence into sin—the emphasis on tragedy. But Runcorn, urges us to see a playful side of the creation stories, where the world is new and full of opportunity.
Runcorn notes the importance of story as the genre God chooses to recount beginnings. Stories foster wonderment. Thus, Runcorn asks questions like, “What kind of God makes things?” And why is original creation called “good” and not “perfect.” Runcorn offers the reader food for thought. Perhaps, “good” indicates room for possibilities and growth, whereas something already perfected ends a story before it can begin.
Playing in the Dust is not all play; it’s not afraid to roam into challenging topics. It wrestles with tensions of both chaos and order in the created world. It questions traditionalist interpretations of Adam and Eve that exclude companionship for gay people. It raises hermeneutical questions about how we read biblical texts, including appreciating biblical truth conveyed in artistic ways and not in scientific terms. The book as a whole takes us through “questions about human identity, calling, temptation, rest” and other deep theological topics.
For readers who might be uncomfortable with some of Runcorn’s conclusions, one could say that’s the goal. The book offers more than a feel-good devotional; it shakes us out of familiar and rote readings to view the text from fresh angles. Runcorn’s book provides creative bite-size reflections to spark discussion on how we read and apply Genesis for the Christian life. For those looking for small group material to stimulate theological conversation on the creation stories, Playing in the Dust fits the bill.
I’m grateful to Canterbury Press for a review copy. For a list of additional books by David Runcorn see his book page.