Abstract
This paper explores the connection between the early chapters of the book of Genesis and a kind of postmodern liberalism, suggested by Richard Rorty, by focusing on the themes of integration and differentiation. Thus, despite the appearance of a very stable structure, Genesis reveals a tension between too much integration on the one hand, and too much differentiation on the other, just as liberalism (in its postmodern form) is at pains to preserve individual human rights (differentiation) alongside of a stable social order (integration). Striking the balance between integration and differentiation is the key to both the Genesis account of human ordering and to postmodern liberalism.
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