Schöpfen, Schlagen, Schützen

The study presents a comprehensive analysis of the actions of God in the psalms and is thus instrumental in attaining an objective representation of the image of God in the Old Testament. It examines all actions attributed to God in the psalter, i.e. all references in which God appears as the subject of a verb. The nearly 2000 references are assessed sorted by their topic, strictly excluding the context of the individual psalm; the author conducts formal and quantitative as well as content-related and qualitative analyses. The result is a differentiated portrayal, which introduces clear arguments into a prejudiced discussion about the image of God in the Old Testament.