(Full disclosure, I believe that Genesis 1 is history. It is literary history but this doesn’t mean that it is not describing a situation, which we could recognize if we were there during the 6 days of Creation.)
Vanhoozer wants to argue for “theological literality.” He means that Genesis 1 should me read literarily as well as literally. We need to read Genesis 1 as literature teaching us theological truths about God. Augustine and Calvin read Genesis 1 in this way. They both looked at the text and not only read the actual words but found in those words something of deeper significance. They found the all-sovereign God, who has almighty power to create the world through his word.
Vanhoozer takes another step. This means that Creationists who are trying to read this passage literally, that is, emphasizing the fact that each part of the passage has a historical referent are looking at this passage the wrong way. They are not enjoying and dwelling in the literary nature of the text. They are treating the biblical statements as scientifically verifiable statements.
I agree. To an extent. We have a false dichotomy in our society today. Literal is set against literary. We forget that writing history is a literary venture. More importantly, we forget that the Bible is a type of literature. We need to re-discover the world of internal biblical symbolism. God is telling a story that is rich in detail and color. We need to see how the stories of the Bible develop, as well as discovering the themes that are embedded in those stories. When we do so it enriches our reading of the whole Bible. The Bible is not science, it is literature.
At the same time, Vanhoozer exercises the folly of modern theology. He thinks that he can jump from a literary hermeneutic to a denial of the historical nature of the days of Genesis. This is his quantum leap. He moves from a literary reading to the possibility fo denying a historical reading (a phenomenological reading). We can read Genesis 1 as a 6-day event but he argues that this is an unimportant doctrine. He values other interpretations as well, as long as they emphasize the literary nature of Genesis 1. The important doctrine is the doctrine of “creation out of nothing” and the “sovereignty of God.”
He believes that this hermeneutic will not affect the reading of the rest of scripture. Unfortunately, the historical details of Genesis 1 have just become a 3rd order doctrine. This won’t affect the rest of scripture? The conclusion I come to is that as long as one can find a literary explanation for the passage, the historical details are up for discussion. When we study the gospels, we can appreciate their high literary structure. Does this mean that their historical nature may be questioned?
We could imagine that Vanhoozer would say that the important thing in the gospels is that Jesus died for our sins and was raised for our justification. Therefore, we don’t need to worry if people deny that he was a Jew. We don’t need to worry whether Pontius Pilate was a real person. The 12 disciples of Jesus are symbolically significant. Whether he actually had 12 disciples? We don’t know.
Vanhoozer foolishly separates doctrine from history. He becomes just like the men he is arguing against. Creationists often deconstruct the text to one important element; scientifically verifiable facts. Vanhoozer deconstructs the text to his favorite element: “theological literality.” He loses the fullness of a text that is both historical and yet is designed by God in order to beautify the internal structure of the story of scripture. He fails to fully appreciate the theological literality of the Genesis text.