Out of the Whirlwind

“Out of the Whirlwind: Creation Theology in the Book of Job is a lucid and well-researched study on the book of Job. It is not encumbered with endless critical debates, though Schifferdecker is clearly aware of the issues and engages with them when they are important to her argument. The book is refreshingly constructive and joins a growing corpus of literature on creation theology and OT/HB interpretation. Especially illuminating is how the motifs of boundaries and of procreation weave through the various sections of the book. The volume is a welcome contribution to Joban scholarship.”—David J. H. Beldman, Journal of Hebrew Scriptures

“It is a regrettably rare thing for a work of careful biblical exegesis to offer a good read, suitable for a reasonably broad audience, on a topic of some contemporary relevance. It is highly unusual for a dissertation in biblical studies to offer all that, as this one does. Schifferdecker’s book makes a fresh contribution to the perennially interesting study of Job by focusing specifically, though not narrowly, on the different views of creation and humanity’s place in creation that are articulated by Job and his various interlocutors, including God… Both Schifferdecker’s prose and her argument are consistently well crafted; sometimes she is not just persuasive but movingly eloquent. Readers can follow the general theological and literary argument without getting bogged down in scholarly particulars; technical matters and debate among specialists are reserved for the footnotes, which are themselves as brief as clarity and good coverage permit. Biblical exegesis would have a better name and a wider readership, if more of it looked like this.”—Ellen F. Davis, Shofar