How many religions in the world work: human beings are in a bartering relationship with the gods: first I offer a sacrifice that the god desires, and then I can hope to receive the God’s help as a consequence. We trade. . . .
The Bible picture of human beings is not as wheelers and dealers in the corporate boardroom, signing contracts with the gods or ultimate reality in order to get ahead; instead we are joyful children on Christmas morning, receiving unexpectedly lavish gifts from loving parents. Free gift, not contractual obligation, is at the heart of the Bible’s picture of reality, just as it is at the heart of the Bible’s picture of redemption.
—Christopher Watkin, Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture, 62, 64
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