Job and the Bible’s Theo-Political Divide
The book of Job presents a unique and detailed contrastive study of two fundamental and fundamentally opposed religious personae: Job, on the one hand, and the collective image of his friends on the other. It is a normative dispute about the religion’s most basic norm of disposition. How i...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2019-01-01
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| Series: | Religions |
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| Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/10/1/33 |
| _version_ | 1819232000789184512 |
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| author | Menachem Fisch |
| author_facet | Menachem Fisch |
| author_sort | Menachem Fisch |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The book of Job presents a unique and detailed contrastive study of two fundamental and fundamentally opposed religious personae: Job, on the one hand, and the collective image of his friends on the other. It is a normative dispute about the religion’s most basic norm of disposition. How is one to respond to inexplicable disaster when one believes one is blameless? What is the religiously appropriate response to catastrophe? To confront God’s judgment as did Job, or to submissively surrender to it, as his four friends insist he should? Is one supposed to question divine justice when deemed to be wanting, as did Job, or to suppress any thought to the contrary and deem it to be just, come what may? Rather than expound (once again) upon the theological implications of the Job dispute, this paper focuses on its theological-political dimensions, and its looming and vivid, yet largely overlooked presence in the Hebrew Bible’s master narrative; and more specifically, on the marked, if inevitable antinomian nature of the Jobian side to the divide. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-23T11:53:54Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9c46e07d1b974b709acc0990159e0a75 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2077-1444 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-23T11:53:54Z |
| publishDate | 2019-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Religions |
| spelling | doaj.art-9c46e07d1b974b709acc0990159e0a752022-12-21T17:48:08ZengMDPI AGReligions2077-14442019-01-011013310.3390/rel10010033rel10010033Job and the Bible’s Theo-Political DivideMenachem Fisch0The Cohn Institute for History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, IsraelThe book of Job presents a unique and detailed contrastive study of two fundamental and fundamentally opposed religious personae: Job, on the one hand, and the collective image of his friends on the other. It is a normative dispute about the religion’s most basic norm of disposition. How is one to respond to inexplicable disaster when one believes one is blameless? What is the religiously appropriate response to catastrophe? To confront God’s judgment as did Job, or to submissively surrender to it, as his four friends insist he should? Is one supposed to question divine justice when deemed to be wanting, as did Job, or to suppress any thought to the contrary and deem it to be just, come what may? Rather than expound (once again) upon the theological implications of the Job dispute, this paper focuses on its theological-political dimensions, and its looming and vivid, yet largely overlooked presence in the Hebrew Bible’s master narrative; and more specifically, on the marked, if inevitable antinomian nature of the Jobian side to the divide.http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/10/1/33religious confrontationreligious submissionBiblical political theology |
| spellingShingle | Menachem Fisch Job and the Bible’s Theo-Political Divide Religions religious confrontation religious submission Biblical political theology |
| title | Job and the Bible’s Theo-Political Divide |
| title_full | Job and the Bible’s Theo-Political Divide |
| title_fullStr | Job and the Bible’s Theo-Political Divide |
| title_full_unstemmed | Job and the Bible’s Theo-Political Divide |
| title_short | Job and the Bible’s Theo-Political Divide |
| title_sort | job and the bible s theo political divide |
| topic | religious confrontation religious submission Biblical political theology |
| url | http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/10/1/33 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT menachemfisch jobandthebiblestheopoliticaldivide |