Noah and the Flood in Western Thought

Almond's masterful new book offers the first comprehensive cultural and intellectual history of Noah and the flood in Western thought.

Philip C Almond (Author)

9781009557221, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 3 April 2025

396 pages
22.2 x 15 x 2.6 cm, 0.63 kg

'erudite yet accessible … an excellent historical overview of (much of) the interpretation of the story of Noah and the Flood.' Neil Dhingra, The Living Church

In a world beset by climatic emergencies, the continuing resonance of the flood story is perhaps easy to understand. Whether in the tortured alpha male intensity of Russell Crowe's Noah, in Darren Aronofsky's eponymous 2014 film, or other recent derivations, the biblical narrative has become a lightning rod for gathering environmental anxieties. However, Philip C. Almond's masterful exploration of Western cultural history uncovers a far more complex Noah than is commonly recognised: not just the father of humanity but also the first shipbuilder, navigator, zookeeper, farmer, grape grower, and wine maker. Noah's pivotal significance is revealed as much in his forgotten secular as in his religious receptions, and their major impact on such disciplines as geology, geography, biology, and zoology. While Noah's many interpretations over two millennia might seem to offer a common message of hope, the author's sober conclusion is that deliverance now lies not in divine but rather in human hands.

List of plates
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Prologue
1. Ancient floods and heroes
2. Building narrative arcs
3. Noah and the flood in Judaism and Islam
4. The late medieval and early modern Noah
5. Noah and the new science
6. Noah, myth, and history
7. Legends of Noah and the ark
Epilogue: a legend for our time
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: History of religion [HRAX]