“How Manifold Are Your Works, O LORD!”
Creation in the Old Testament
B646
Spring Term, 2010
Mondays and Wednesdays 4:00-5:30 pm
202RC
Instructor: William P. Brown
Office: 309 RC
BrownB@ctsnet.edu
404-687-4584
Course Description:
Participants will study the various creation traditions of the Old Testament with a view toward
their theological, spiritual, and ecological implications, particularly as the church addresses the
crisis of environmental degradation by offering a message that is both prophetic and pastoral.
The class will draw on a range of resources, from biblical scholarship to scientific research, in
order to develop new and relevant ways of reading Scripture for our day and age.
Required Texts:
Ellen F. Davis, Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Carol J. Dempsey and Mary Margaret Pazdan (eds.), Earth, Wind, and Fire: Biblical and
Theological Perspectives on Creation. Liturgical Press, 2004.
Terence E. Fretheim, God and World in the Old Testament: A Relational Theology of Creation.
Abingdon, 2005.
Ursula Goodenough, The Sacred Depths of Nature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1949.
Michael S. Northcott, A Moral Climate: The Ethics of Global Warming. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis,
2007.
Barbara Brown Taylor, The Luminous Web: Essays on Science and Religion. Cambridge, MA:
Cowley, 2000.
Recommended Texts:
William P. Brown, The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and the Ecology of
Wonder. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Stephanie Dalley, Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others.
Oxford University Classics, 1989.
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Class Requirements:
1.
Preparation and participation in discussion during class time (50%).
2.
Oral presentations during the final two weeks of class on assigned topics (20%).
3.
A final project drawing from work done in class and extra readings (30%). Details
forthcoming.
Schedule
Feb 1:
Orientation
Feb 3:
A Theology of Biblical Creation?
READ: Psalms 33, 95, 100;
READ: Fretheim, God and World, ix-28
Feb 8
Widening the Interpretive Lens I: science and faith
READ: Brown Taylor, Luminous Web
Feb 10
Widening the Interpretive Lens II: biology
READ: Goodenough, Sacred Depths of Nature
Feb 15
Widening the Interpretive Lens III: ecology
READ: Leopold, Sand County Almanac
Feb 17
Widening the Interpretive Lens IV: global warming
READ: Northcott, A Moral Climate
Feb 22
Widening the Interpretive Lens V: food
READ: Davis, Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture
Feb 24
The Ancient Context of Creation: war of the gods
READ: “Atrahasis” and “The Babylonian Epic of Creation” (Enūma elish)
in Dalley, Myths from Mesopotamia (or from another source).
March 1
“In the Beginning”: the cosmic temple
READ: Genesis 1:1-2:4a
READ: Fretheim, God and World, 29-67.
March 3
Genesis 1 and its Discontents
READ: Lynn White, Jr., “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis”
(see link under Lessons on Angel)
READ: Laffey, “The Priestly Creation Narrative,”
in Earth, Wind, and Fire, 24-34.
READ: Reid, “Sabbath, the Crown of Creation,”
in Earth, Wind, and Fire, 67-76.
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March 8
In the Garden: the family plot
READ: Genesis 2:4b-3:21
READ: Michael Welker “What is Creation? Rereading Genesis 1 and 2,”
in Theology Today 48/1 (April 1991): 56-71.
March 10
Outside the Garden
READ: Dempsey, “Creation, Evolution, Revelation, and Redemption,”
in Earth, Wind, and Fire, 1-23.
READ: Julie Galambush, “’adam from ’adama, ’issa from ’is: Derivation
and Subordination in Genesis 2.4b-3.24,” in History and
Interpretation: Essays in Honour of John H. Hayes, ed. M.
Patrick Graham et al (JSOTSup 173; Sheffield: JSOT
Press, 1993), pp. 33-46.
READ: Kristin M. Swenson, “Earth Tells the Lessons of Cain,” in
Exploring Ecological Hermeneutics, ed. Norman C. Habel and
Peter Trudinger (SBLSS 46; Atlanta: Society of Biblical
Literature, 2008), 31-39.
March 15, 17
NO CLASS
March 22
Into the Wild: Creation à la Job
READ: Job 38-41
READ: Fretheim, God and World, 219-47
March 24
A Stranger in a Strange Land
READ: Kathleen O’Connor, “Wild, Raging Creativity: Job in the
Whirlwind,” in Earth, Wind, and Fire, 48-56.
READ: Carol A. Newsom, “The Moral Sense of Nature: Ethics in the
Light of God’s Speech to Job,” in Princeton Seminary Bulletin
15/1 New Series (1994): 9-27.
March 29
“How Manifold Are Your Works, O LORD!”
READ: Psalm 104
READ: Fretheim, God and World, 249-68
March 31
The Passion of the Creator
READ: Patrick D. Miller, “The Poetry of Creation: Psalm 104,” in God
Who Creates: Essays in Honor of W. Sibley Towner, ed W.
P. Brown and S. Dean McBride Jr. (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 2000), 87-104.
READ: William P. Brown, “Joy and the Art of Cosmic Maintenance: An
Ecology of Play in Psalm 104,” in “And God Saw That It Was
Good,” Essays on Creation and God in Honor of Terence E.
Fretheim. Word & World Supplement Series 5, pp. 23-32.
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April 12
The Playfulness of the Creator
READ: Proverbs 8:22-31
READ: Fretheim, God and World, 199-217
April 14
Wisdom and Creation
READ: Ellen F. Davis, “Surprised by Wisdom: Preaching Proverbs,”
Interpretation 63/3 (July 2009): 264-77.
READ: William P. Brown, “Proverbs 8:22-31,” Interpretation 63/3
(July 2009): 286-88.
April 5, 7
NO CLASS
April 19
“All Things Are Wearisome”: The World According to Qoheleth
READ: Ecclesiastes 1, 3, 12
READ: Choon-Leong Seow, “Theology When Everything is Out of
Control,” in Interpretation 55/3 (July 2001): 237-49.
READ: Elsa Tamez, “Ecclesiastes: A Reading from the Periphery,” in
Interpretation 55/3 (July 2001): 250-59.
April 21
Living in a Dying Creation
READ: William R. Stoeger, “Scientific Accounts of Ultimate
Catastrophes in our Life-Bearing Universe,” in The End of the
World and the Ends of God, ed. John Polkinghorne and Michael
Welker. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2000, 19-28.
READ: William P. Brown, “‘Whatever Your Hand Finds To Do’:
Qoheleth’s Work Ethic,” in Interpretation 55/3 (July 2001):
271-84.
April 26
“I Am About To Do A New Thing”: Creation in Second Isaiah
READ: Isaiah 40-55
April 28
Emergent Creation
READ: Cook, “Everyone Called by My Name,” in Earth, Wind, and Fire,
35-47.
May 3
Student Presentations
May 5
Student Presentations
FINAL PROJECT DUE May 10
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Bible and Creation
Wendell Berry, Life Is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition.
Counterpoint, 2001.
Lester Brown, Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization. W. W. Norton, 2008.
William P. Brown, The Ethos of the Cosmos: The Genesis of Moral Imagination in
the Bible. Eerdmans, 1999.
. “The Moral Cosmologies of Creation,” in Character Ethics and the Old
Testament: Moral Dimensions of Scripture, eds. M. Danny Carroll R. and
Jacqueline Lapsley. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2007, 11-26.
. “Joy and the Art of Cosmic Maintenance: An Ecology of Play in Psalm
104,” in “And God Saw That It Was Good”: Essays on Creation and God in
Honor of Terence E. Fretheim, eds. F. J. Gaiser, M. A. Throntveit. World &
World Supplement 5; Saint Paul, Minn.: Luther Seminary, 2006, 23-32.
. “The Lion, the Wicked, and the Wonder of it All: Psalm 104 and the Playful
God,” Journal for Preachers 29/3 (2006): 15-20.
Walter Brueggemann, The Land: Place as Gift, Promise, and Challenge in Biblical
Faith. Overtures to Biblical Theology; Fortress, 1977.
Richard J. Clifford and John J. Collins (eds), Creation in the Biblical Traditions.
Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 24; Catholic Biblical Association
of America, 1992.
Carol J. Dempsey and Mary Margaret Pazdan (eds.), Earth, Wind, and Fire: Biblical and
Theological Perspectives on Creation. Liturgical Press, 2004.
Carol J. Dempsey and Russell A. Butkus, All Creation is Groaning: An
Interdisciplinary Vision for Life in a Sacred Universe. Liturgical Press/Michael
Glazier, 1989.
Denis Edwards, Ecology at the Heart of Faith: The Change of Heart That Leads to a
New Way of Living on Earth. Orbis, 2006.
Tim Flannery, The Weather Makers: How Man is Changing the Climate and What it
Means for Life on Earth. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005.
Edward Foley and Robert Schreiter (eds.), The Wisdom of Creation. Liturgical
Press, 2004.
Terence E. Fretheim, God and World in the Old Testament: A Relational Theology of
Creation. Abingdon Press, 2005.
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Roger S. Gottlieb, A Greener Faith: Religious Environmentalism and Our Planet’s
Future. Oxford, 2006.
Ursula Goodenough, The Sacred Depths of Nature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998
Norman C. Habel (ed.), The Earth Bible Volume 1— (originally published by
Sheffield Academic Press / Pilgrim Press (2000—). There are at least four
volumes out now and more forthcoming.
Paul Hawken, The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability.
HarperBusiness, 1993.
Dieter Hessel and Rosemary Radford Reuther (eds), Christianity and Ecology.
Harvard University Press, 2000.
Theodore Hiebert, The Yahwist’s Landscape: Nature and Religion in Early Israel.
Oxford University Press, 1996. Reprinted by Fortress.
Daniel Hillel, The Natural History of the Bible: An Environmental Exploration of the
Hebrew Scriptures. Columbia University Press, 2006.
Willis Jenkins, Ecologies of Grace: Environmental Ethics and Christian Theology.
Oxford University Press, 2008.
Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1949.
Jon D. Levenson, Creation and the Persistence of Evil: The Jewish Drama of Divine
Omnipotence. Princeton University Press, 1994 (1988).
James Martin-Schramm and Robert L. Stivers, Christian Environmental Ethics: A
Case Method Approach. Orbis, 2003.
Sallie McFague, A New Climate for Theology: God, the World, and Global Warming.
Fortress, 2008.
, The Body of God: An Ecological Theology. Fortress, 1993.
, Life Abundant: Rethinking Theology and Economy for a Planet in Peril.
Fortress, 2000.
, Super, Natural Christians. Fortress, 2000.
Bill McKibben, Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future.
Henry Holt, 2007.
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J. Richard Middleton, The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis 1. Brazos, 2005.
Jürgen Moltmann, “The Destruction and Healing of the Earth: Ecology and Theology,” in
The Spirit and the Modern Authorities (God and Globalization: Theological Ethics and
the Spheres of Life, Vol. 2), ed. Max. L. Stackhouse with Don S. Browning. Trinity Press
International, 2001, 166-90.
Carol A. Newsom, “The Moral Sense of Nature: Ethics in the Light of God’s Speech to Job,”
in Princeton Seminary Bulletin 15/1 New Series (1994): 9-27.
Michael S. Northcott, A Moral Climate: The Ethics of Global Warming. Orbis, 2007.
Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals.
Penguin Press, 2006.
Larry L. Rasmussen. Earth Community, Earth Ethics. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1996.
Barbara Rossing, The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of
Revelation. Basic Books, 2004.
Christopher Southgate, The Groaning of Creation: God, Evolution, and the Problem
of Evil. Westminster John Knox, 2008.
Margaret Swedish, Living Beyond the “End of the World”: A Spirituality of Hope.
Orbis, 2008.
Barbara Brown Taylor, The Luminous Web: Essays on Science and Religion. Cowley, 2001.
Michael Welker, Creation and Reality, translated by John F. Hoffmeyer. Fortress, 1999.
E. O. Wilson, The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth. W. W. Norton, 2006.
Norman Wirzba, The Paradise of God: Renewing Religion in an Ecological Age
Oxford University Press, 2003.
Laura Ruth Yordy, Green Witness: Ecology, Ethics, and the Kingdom of God.
Cascade Books, 2008.
Various essays on the “Image of God,” in Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and
Theology 59/4 (October 2005).
Various essays in God Who Creates: Essays in Honor of W. Sibley Towner, ed.
William P. Brown and S. Dean McBride Jr. Eerdmans, 2000.
Various essays in Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology 50/1 (January
1996). See particularly the essays by Rolston, Towner, and Hiebert.