The liturgical year is based on the three primary harvest festivals of the highlands, and the principal cultic ritual consists of the offering to the deity of the first fruits of the two sectors of Israel's mixed agricultural economy. Such a system does not set God and people apart from natural processes but formalizes, through cultic acts, their interdependence. The sharp dichotomy in biblical scholarship between nature and history is not supported by the Yahwist's landscape, which displays a unitary metaphysic. The Yahwist stresses the human's oneness with the earth and all living creatures. The human, occupying a subordinate role within the created order, is the land's servant, not its master or ruler.
Humanity is only a part of creation and dependent on it.
It is Hiebert's contention that the Yahwistic understanding of the human in nature can provide added perspective to current discussions about the resourcefulness of Western religious traditions for a contemporary theology of nature. Hiebert's The Yahwist's Landscape is a well-researched and interestingly written monograph. It is a significant contribution to the field of a biblical theology of nature and will be read with profit not only by the two audiences to which it is primarily addressed but by all who are interested in the message of the Bible.