Yesterday I listened to a lecture by John Walton titled “Genesis One as Ancient Cosmology” that he gave as part of the 2009 Logos Lecture Series (listen here). It made me want to read his book on the subject. In this lecture he discusses how “creation” would not have necessarily been so much about something coming from nothing as much as order from disorder or function from “functionlessness”. In fact, he said, “In Genesis One we do not have an account of material origins; we have an account of functional origins.”
As part of his arguement he alludes to temple literature in the ancient near east to explain the “seven days” and creation narratives to explain the worldview. This does not mean he does not use solid exegesis. Actually, his exegesis of Genesis is very solid.
This is an exciting paradigm. It seems to be gaining support. I need to read this book.
the archives near Emmaus 
Yes, you must read it! I find his arguments rather persuasive and have piqued my interest in the relationship between temple and cosmos.
Walton’s book is very well done and relatively short (192 pages). It’s an expansion of the case that he makes in his NIV Application Commentary on Genesis (Zondervan, 2001), pp. 147-157.
I might also add, if you didn’t already know, that Walton has a more in-depth academic treatment of this issue in a forthcoming book from Eisenbrauns. Last October it was in the early stages, but I haven’t heard where it might be now.
His little book on the topic is quite helpful, I’d definitely recommend it.
I’m with Jason. Yep, you have to read the book.
I recently listened to what seems to be the same lecture you referenced here on YouTube recently (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6B2qTdacBY&list=PL0C0CFE5883D972F1&index=1&feature=plpp_video), and at every point he brings out I want to say, “Yes!” “Wow!” “What?” Everything he says makes so much sense of the text. I previewed his Genesis commentary on Google Books and read some of the connections he brings out between Genesis 1-3 and 6-9, which were jaw-dropping. Now my mouth is watering for his Genesis commentary. 🙂