The ‘Curse of Ham’: how people of faith used a story in Genesis to justify slavery

By Natalie Sauer According to a report by an independent oversight committee released in March 2024, the Church of England should pay £1bn in reparations – 10 times the previously set amount – to the descendants of slavery. The report was the start of a “multi-generational response to the appalling evil of transatlantic chattel enslavement”, said Justin Welby, …

Bereishit — A Fall or an Ascent?

It’s been said that the first chapter of Bereishit (Genesis) contains polemics against just about every worldview common in the ancient world. I want to focus here on just one of those worldviews: the notion of destiny, that a person’s fate is written in the stars. Au contraire, says the Torah: as soon as humans enter the …

Should We Take Creation Stories in Genesis Literally?

Robin Ngo   •  01/31/2016 What purpose did creation stories in Genesis serve? Were they Biblical myths? Pictured here isThe Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man (c. 1617) by Flemish painters Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder. Were the creation stories in Genesis meant to be taken literally? Maybe not, says …