God the Creator: The Old Testament and the World God Is Making

by Ben Ollenburger

Publisher:

Baker Academic

, 2023

Overview

Christians today are focused on two important creation topics: how the world came to be and how we should care for it. A highly respected Old Testament theologian recommends that before discussing these questions, we focus on God the Creator and God’s ongoing work in creation. We should explore what the Bible tells us and let the text set the agenda for our reflections.

Combining his storytelling gift with rigorous biblical exegesis and deep reflection, Ben Ollenburger describes the action of God the Creator as presented throughout the Old Testament. He shows how creation is about more than origins. It is about God acting against the hostile forces of chaos that can be historical, political, and military. About how God created a well-ordered world, and how human transgression ruptures God’s relationship with humans and threatens creation. About how God responds as Creator to those threats by disturbing and reordering the disorder, bringing about what God intended—a world ordered in the social, political, and natural realms that is characterized by the justice, righteousness, and peace required for human flourishing.

Key Features

• Combines storytelling with rigorous biblical exegesis and deep reflection
• Describes the action of God the Creator as presented throughout the Old Testament
• Shows how creation is about more than origins

Contents

• Introduction
• 1. God’s World at Peace: Genesis 1
• 2. From Virtually Nothing to the Garden of God: Genesis 2
• 3. From God’s Peaceful Garden to Peace Divinely Disturbed: Genesis 3:1-11:9
• 4. “In Primeval Days”: Creation Texts before the Bible
• 5. “Who Is the King of Glory?”: God the Creator in the Psalms
• 6. “The Lord by Wisdom Founded the Earth”: God the Creator in Wisdom Literature
• 7. Royal Theology: God the Creator in Isaiah
• 8. “Who Treads the Heights of the Earth”: God the Creator in the Prophets after Isaiah
• 9. Rearranging the World: God the Creator in Zechariah and Daniel
• 10. God the Creator beyond the Old Testament

Praise for the Print Edition

In God the Creator, Ollenburger synthesizes and expands his career-long investigation of biblical concepts of creation. On display are the author’s finest characteristics: keen attention to primary texts, breadth and depth of scriptural engagement, restraint of other scholars’ overstatements, and the rare gifts of clarity and accessibility. Taking the Creator God as its touchstone, this book articulates a concise biblical theology: an assessment of divine-human interaction within the framework of the world’s nature and structure. It comes most highly recommended.

—C. Clifton Black, Otto A. Piper Professor of Biblical Theology, Princeton Theological Seminary

God the Creator by Ben Ollenburger is the magnum opus of a mature scholar and teacher, the loving product of years of study, teaching, and reflection. Ollenburger focuses on multifaceted ways that Old Testament and some New Testament texts portray God in the mode of Creator. He discusses forms of interpretation, reads passages closely, and uncovers nuances of language in a way that yields biblical theology of poetic power. This book is a must-read for seminarians, ecologists, pastors, church groups, and anyone seeking an encounter with the Creator God.

—Kathleen M. O’Connor, William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament, emerita, Columbia Theological Seminary

Biblical accounts of God as Creator may begin with Genesis 1, but they scarcely end there. In this deeply researched and accessible volume, Ben Ollenburger demonstrates the breadth of biblical reflection on the God who creates, protects, and sustains the world and its inhabitants. A splendid contribution that will amply enrich its readers.

—Beverly Roberts Gaventa, Helen H. P. Manson Professor Emerita of New Testament, Princeton Theological Seminary

Product Details

• Title: God the Creator: The Old Testament and the World God Is Making
• Author: Ben Ollenburger
• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Print Publication Date: 2023
• Logos Release Date: 2023
• Pages: 241
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Subjects: Creation › Biblical teaching; God; Creationism › Biblical teaching; Bible. O.T. › Criticism, interpretation, etc; Redemption
• ISBNs: 9780801048661, 9781540966469, 9781493440115, 9781493440122, 0801048664, 1540966461, 149344011X, 1493440128
• Resource ID: LLS:GODTHECREATOR
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2023-04-18T18:50:45Z

About Ben Ollenburger

He is a storyteller. This gift often inspires both laughter and new insight. Ben Ollenburger also pursues the work of theology with passion and discipline. Ben served in lay leadership in the Princeton House Church, 1980-86. He has had various publishing roles, including work as an editor and writer, contributing to popular and scholarly publications. He was an instructor at Tabor College, 1975-77, and at Princeton Theological Seminary, 1980-82, and assistant professor of Old Testament at Princeton, 1982-87. He joined AMBS in 1987.