Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming

Anglican Theological Review, Fall 2006 by Koster, Hilda P

Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming. By Catherine Keller. London and New York: Routledge, 2003. xx 307 pp. $25.95 (paper).

In her eloquently written book, Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming, Catherine Keller argues that how we conceive of the world's beginning importantly shapes how we treat each other and the natural world. While Christian orthodoxy has assumed that the world is created out of nothing (ex nihilo) by a transcendent, all-powerful God, Face of the Deep envisions an altogether different theology of creation, not out of nothing but (drawing on Genesis 1) from the bottomless, watery deep (creatio ex profundis).

Keller's main problem with creation ex nihilo is that it constitutes world history as running from a pure and simple divine origin placed outside finite existence, towards a divinely guaranteed future. According to Keller, this linear salvation history desperately wants to be straight, and, hence, suppresses all that does not fit its orderly structure: those "who bear the mask of chaos, the skins of darkness, the genders of unspeakable openings" (p. 6). Indeed, Keller argues, we, as a Western culture, collectively suffer from an all-pervasive fear of the deep (tehomophobia). In response, and as a political-spiritual practice, Keller's theology of creation "writes of nothing before or outside of time and space," allowing the deep to saturate her discourse on God and world (p.157).

Face of the Deep is divided into four parts all of which can be read more or less independently. Part I (chaps. 1 and 2) introduces Keller's project and sketches the book's main argument. She asks, What happened to the chaos of the second verse of Genesis 1? The second part, in turn, searches some of the conflicted textual origins of creation ex nihilo, most notably those of Irenaeus (chap. 3), Augustine (chap. 4), and Karl Barth (chap. 5). Keller charges these texts with establishing and reiterating the logo-centric order of creation ex nihilo. Yet while demonized by orthodoxy, the chaotic deep keeps disturbing the surface. Part III of Keller's book traces the recurrence of the chaos in Mikhail Bakthin's exegesis of the book of Job (chap. 7) and the American narrative of Moby Dick (chap. 8), Here an altogether different vision of the deep emerges: as the life-giving complexity of life. The final chapters of the book, then, e/affectively rewrite both Cod and creation us becoming from this newly conceived notion of the deep.

This is a very important book, which will shape the theological discussion on creation for some time to come. Not only is it the first full-fledged Christian theology of creation out of chaos to date, it also redirects our religious imagination towards a nurturing relationship with each other and the earth-a more than welcome gesture in a time of climbing temperatures, rising oceans, and increasing tensions over natural resources. The book bridges many theoretical and philosophical divisions by drawing together insights from fields as varied as eco-feminism, process theology, biblical hermeneutics, Rabbinic literature, chaos theory, and French post-structuralist theory. Unfortunately the wealth of theories and traditions, combined with Keller's deconstructive writing technique-which as a rule resists order and clarity-makes the book less accessible to those not familiar with these theories. Whether one ultimately is persuaded by Keller's vision will depend on whether one agrees with Keller's criticism of ex nihilo. Does it really always presuppose an all-transcendent, distant Creator God? Defending ex nihilo over and against the far removed deity of gnosticism, Irenaeus (130-200 c.e) in fact emphasized the nearness of God to all creatures. His is a rather hands on divinity, who works in and through human beings and the rest of creation. Such a God can hardly be seen as untouched by worldly finitude.

HILDA P. KOSTER

Concordia College

Moorhead, Minnesota