This paperback edition brings to a wide audience one of the most innovative and meaningful models of God for this post-Auschwitz era. In a thought-provoking return to the original Hebrew conception of God, which questions accepted conceptions of divine omnipotence, Jon Levenson defines God's authorship of the world as a consequence of his victory in his struggle with evil. He traces a flexible conception of God to the earliest Hebrew sources, arguing, for example, that Genesis 1 does not describe the banishment of evil but the attempt to contain the menace of evil in the world, a struggle that continues today.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Abbreviations ix Acknowledgments xi Note on the Text (1994) xiii Preface (1994) xv Preface xxix Part I THE MASTERY OF GOD AND THE VULNERABILITY OF ORDER 1. The Basic Idea of Israelite Religion? 3 2. The Survival of Chaos After the Victory of God 14 3. The Futurity and Presence of the Cosmogonic Victory 26 4. Conclusion: The Vitality of Evil and the Fragility of Creation 47 Part II THE ALTERNATION OF CHAOS AND ORDERGENESIS 1:1-2:3 5. Creation Without Opposition: Psalm 104 53 6. Creation in Seven Days 66 7. Cosmos and Microcosm 78 8. Rest and Re-Creation 100 9. Conclusion: Chaos Neutralized in Cult 121 Part III CREATION AND COVENANT: THE DYNAMICS OF LORDSHIP AND SUBMISSION 10. The Two Idioms of Biblical Monotheism 131 11. The Dialectic of Covenantal Theonomy 140 12. Argument and Obedience 149 Notes 157 Scripture Index 177 Author Index 181
