Leithart vs. Walton on Genesis 1

Peter Leithart offers an interesting critique of John Walton’s The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate. Here is his summary:

Walton’s main conceptual contribution—the functional/material distinction—isn’t convincing, and some of the main planks of his biblical analysis are weak, partly because they rely on his questionable functional/material distinction. His understanding of the pre-Genesis 1 world is contradictory: He wants to say it is unproductive for biblical reasons, but he’s willing to insert into that world the teeming energy of evolutionary process.

Clever as it is, Walton’s thesis doesn’t live up to its promise.

You can read the whole thing here.