Job, the Mourner
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Description
The Book of Job was understood among philosophers and theologians as a great attempt to grapple with the metaphysical and theological challenges that the fact of evil poses. It was common therefore to interpret the book as an integral part of the discussion concerning the problem of evil and theodicy. Yet there is another, very different stance of addressing the encounter of evil, one not of the theologian or the philosopher; this is the stance of the mourner, which is adopted by the narrative framing of the Book of Job. The different statements of the protagonists in the book, statements that served as the canonical formulations concerning the problem of evil, occur in the particular context of Job’s sitting in mourning while engaging in debate with his friends who presumably have come to comfort him. This particular setting—of the mourner and his comforters—is not mere decorative background to a theological debate. It is a far more serious context, constituting the particular stance in which the problem of evil is experienced and addressed in the Book of Job. In order to understand the full implications of the mourner’s stance it is worthwhile to first outline the traditional theological and philosophical problem of evil and the varieties of responses that come under the heading of theodicy. The traditional project of theodicy will then serve as a contrasting background that will help illuminate what I think is at the center of Job’s stance as a mourner, a stance that might touch deeper dimensions of the human experience of evil, and that helps to articulate what is at stake in the drama unfolding in the Book of Job.
Source Publication
The Book of Job: Aesthetics, Ethics, Hermeneutics
Source Editors/Authors
Leora Batnitzky, Ilana Pardes
Publication Date
2015
Recommended Citation
Halbertal, Moshe, "Job, the Mourner" (2015). Faculty Chapters. 749.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/749
