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The Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming By Catherine Keller London and New York, Routledge, 2003. 307 pp. $27.95.
This book defines and articulates a tehomic theology. Tehom is the Hebrew word for "ocean, deep, abyss" and is used in Genesis 1: In the beginning "darkness was upon the face of the deep." Catherine Keller, professor of theology at Drew University, plumbs the full Semitic and mythological range of significations for tehom to develop a theology of creation from chaos-from the primordial, watery depths-as an alternative to the orthodox theology rooted in creation ex nihilo. Traditional theology conceives of God as the omnipotent Creator and Lord, who holds indisputable power over all things and serves as the guarantor and legitimizer of social and cultural power-structures developed in his name and image. Tehomic theology, by contrast, envisions God-intertwined with "the Deep"-as a fluid, indeterminate, germinating abyss and matrix of potentiality...