This book raises methodological questions about historical and theological comparative studies, including the expectation that non-European scholars must somehow engage with post-colonial and other theory to justify their interpretations. Demands for theory risk claiming an etic function which is beyond their reach as exempla of emic strategies: the persistence of a modernist "view from nowhere".

A methodological introduction, which makes the case for the continuing viability of comparative work and guidelines for its practice, is followed by 13 case studies.

These include historical examples around the comparison of creation narratives (e.g., Genesis and ANE traditions, Stoicism and the Fourth Gospel). These show that engagements with context have been an integral part of the Christian tradition and the literature which it claims since antiquity.

The bulk of the work comprises the comparison of Christian creation narratives with historical and contemporary indigenous and native contexts (including North America, the Caribbean, India, South and East Asia, Oceania, Māori and Australian Indigenous, Africa). All are written by scholars from within their respective cultures and contexts.