SOURCE: “Genesis and Power: An Analysis of the Biblical Story of Creation,” The Quarterly Journal of Speech, Vol. 72, No. 2, May, 1986, pp. 113-31.

In the following essay, the critics use two sections of Genesis, believed by many scholars to have been written by different authors, in order to examine the relationship between discourse and power. The critics maintain that the two texts complement one another and present a complete, balanced, persuasive vision of God's power.

The relationship between truth and power has fascinated philosophers and rhetoricians for centuries. The basic problematic of the relationship may be traced to the truism that truth claims are made through discourse, and, as such, must be made persuasively. Therefore, the will to truth would seem to be subsumed by the will to power. On the other hand, in those areas that matter to us and in which we consider ourselves to be expert...