Theology from the Beginning: Essays on the Primeval History and its Canonical Context
The Primeval History (Genesis 1-11) is one of the most complex theological compositions of the Old Testament/the Hebrew Bible. Woven into its multi-layered text one finds reflections on an array of fundamental questions: How did the world come into being? Who is its creator? What role does humankind...
| Summary: | The Primeval History (Genesis 1-11) is one of the most complex theological compositions of the Old Testament/the Hebrew Bible. Woven into its multi-layered text one finds reflections on an array of fundamental questions: How did the world come into being? Who is its creator? What role does humankind play in the larger scheme of creation? Why is the world that God made not a perfect one? And finally, is it possible to lead a meaningful and even happy life despite the unpredictabilities of existence? The essays by Andreas Schule assembled in this volume address these and related questions through close readings of Genesis 1-11 and by relating them to kindred textual traditions throughout the Old Testament/the Hebrew Bible 1. The image of God. Made in the "image of God": the concepts of divine images in Gen 1-3 ; The reluctant image: theology and anthropology in Gen 1-3 ; The dignity of the image: a re-reading of the priestly prehistory ; The notion of life: Nefesh and Ruach in the anthropological discourse of the primeval history ; Transformed into the image of Christ: identity, personality, and resurrection -- 2. Evil. "And behold, it was very good...And behold, the Earth was corrupt" (Genesis 1:31, 6:12): the prehistoric discourse about Evil ; The divine-human marriages: Genesis 6:1-4 and the Greek framing of the primeval history -- Evil from the heart: Qoheleth's negative anthropology and its canonical context -- 3. Law and forgiveness: elements of priestly theology. The 'eternal covenant' in the priestly Pentateuch and the Major Prophets ; The primeval history as an etiology of Torah ; At the border of sin and forgiveness: Salaḥ in the Old Testament ; "On Earth as it is in Heaven": eschatology and the ethics of forgiveness -- 4. God. The challenged God: reflections on the Motif of God's repentance in Job, Jeremiah, Jonah, and the non-priestly flood narrative ; "Have you any right to be angry?": the theological discourse surrounding the conclusion to the Book of Jonah (Jonah 3:6-4:11) ; The God who creates: a contribution to the theology of the Old Testament -- 5. Ethics. The ethics of Genesis: a contribution to biblical humanism ; "For he is like you": a translation and understanding of the Old Testament commandment to love in Lev 19:18 ; Sharing and loving: love, law and the ethics of cultural memory in the Pentateuch |
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| ISBN: | 3161539974 |