The Ethos of the Cosmos: The Genesis of Moral Imagination in the Bible.

• Author: DOZEMAN, THOMAS B.
• Position: Review

The Ethos of the Cosmos: The Genesis of Moral Imagination in the Bible. By WILLIAM P. BROWN. Grand Rapids, Mich.: WM. B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING Co., 1999. Pp. xviii + 458. $35 (paper).

William P. Brown has written a wide-ranging study of creation in the Hebrew Bible. Past studies, according to Brown, have focused too narrowly on the worldview implied in the Hebrew Bible or on the mythological origins of the creation traditions without exploring adequately their ethical dimension. The result is a dichotomy between worldviews of creation and communal ethics. Brown seeks to remedy this situation by interrelating creation and ethics through a study of ethos (Greek, "custom, usage, manners, habit" [Liddell and Scott]). Ethos arises from the interplay of moral imagination and human experience arising from a particular environment. Ethos provides the context, situation, framework, and even ontology for moral action. When the creation stories in the Hebrew Bible are interpreted from this perspective, they are about "sustaining place," not "infinite space." They depict the "moral space ... in which moral life and agency can flourish" (p. 383). Brown examines five such moral landscapes in this book.

The first half of the book targets the Pentateuch. Brown interprets the creation stories of the Priestly and the Yahwistic histories within their larger literary contexts. Chapter two targets the Priestly writers' moral worldview. Genesis I is central. It provides the springboard by which the Priestly writers construct a cosmos characterized by the interplay between integration with the surrounding world and separation from it for the sake of identity. The story of Abraham, the revelation at Sinai, the construction of the temple, the observance of Sabbath, and a series of crises about the land (spy story), the cult (the Korah rebellion), and even Mosaic leadership (especially his sin in Numbers 20) are read in the framework of the opening Priestly cosmology. The summary of the narrative provides a framework for interpreting law. The laws about holiness at the close of the chapter illustrate the interrelation between cosmology and ethics. Chapter three examines the garden story in Genesis 2. It provides the e thos for the Yahwist's larger historiographical work, generating a culture favoring agriculture and family over city. The wilderness is an important selling in the Yahwist history, according to Brown. It brings ancient Israel to the brink of realizing...