Abstract
It is now the expectation that any volume produced by Othmar Keel will challenge long-held assumptions and vastly expand the reader’s experience of the biblical world. This volume, with Silvia Schroer, does not disappoint. Here the authors purpose to critique the various common (mostly Christian) theologies of creation and to clarify the thought behind the Hebrew Bible on this topic.
The book opens with an immediate challenge; the authors wish to demote the status of the Exodus as the primary theological lens of the Hebrew Bible and to promote creation (the numinous experience of the created order) as a greater part of Israel’s religious life and the texts that describe it. From here the authors weigh the contributions of the various dominant theologies of recent generations as they relate to the created world. It becomes clear quite quickly that the authors wish the present volume to be a corrective to standard treatments both of theological readings of the Bible (primacy of Exodus) and of the created order. On the latter, the authors advocate a numinous approach and seek to demonstrate in the remainder of the volume how Israel experienced creation in just this way. The chapters are divided thematically, relating each to a theological topic concerning creation. At this point, however, the logical flow of the volume breaks down and most readers would likely find themselves at a loss to explain where it is heading. Even the connection of the main body of the volume to the theological introduction is rather loose. However, the book shines in its descriptions within the chapters. When the authors engage the iconographic material, the images of deities, fauna, and flora, that is when the reader’s theological paradigms shift. It takes the visual evidence to drive home what is otherwise difficult to explain.
Two further minor critiques remain. In illuminating the visual evidence the authors have a tendency to proof-text and to see what they wish in the Hebrew Bible. To their credit, however, this volume would have become a 900-page book if they had to offer thorough justifications for every reading. The other critique is of the title, Creation. It is confusing whether this means ‘act of creation’ or ‘created order’. Neither title, subtitle, or book jacket explain that it is the latter that is meant. Despite these criticisms, the knowledge contained in this work is immensely valuable and deserves high praise.