Module Level
9/10
Time Allowance
First semester, ten two-hour seminars.
Assessment
Seminar Attendance, Participation and Reflection Papers (2000 words) 30%; Final 5000-word essay 70%
Module Aims
In this module, participants will explore the literary and theological complexities of an ancient masterpiece, the biblical book of Job.
Learning Outcomes
- — Interpret biblical poetry with a sensitivity to its literary conventions.
- — Articulate how literary gaps and ambiguities within the text have given rise to different interpretations of the book of Job.
- — Critically engage with a range of theological readings of Job.
- — Relate the book of Job to theological issues of creation, suffering, theodicy, divine revelation and the human quest for meaning.
Bibliography
- — Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Poetry (revised edition). New York NY: Basic Books 2011.
- — Samuel E. Balentine, Job (Smyth and Helwys Bible Commentary) Macon GA: Smyth and Helwys, 2006.
- — Leora Batnitzky and Ilana Pardes, The Book of Job: Aesthetics, Ethics, Hermeneutics. DeGruyter Mouton, 2015 [ebook].
- — Athalya Brenner, "Job the Pious? The Characterisation of Job in the Narrative Framework of the Book," Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 43 (1989): 37-52.
- — Gustavo Gutierrez, On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent. Maryknoll NY: Orbis Books, 1987.
- — Norman C. Habel, Finding Wisdom in Nature: An Eco-Wisdom Reading of the Book of Job. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2014
- — F. Rachel Magdalene, "Job's Wife as hero: a feminist-forensic reading of the book of Job," Interpretation 14 (2006): 155-182.
- — Carol A. Newsom, The Book of Job: A Contest of Moral Imaginations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009 [ebook]
- — Abigail Pelham, Contested Creations in the Book of Job: The world as it ought and ought not to be. Leiden: Brill 2012.
- — Choon-Leong Seow, Job 1-21: Interpretation and Commentary. Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmans, 2013.
- — Samuel Terrien, The Iconography of Job through the Centuries: Artists as biblical interpreters. Philadelphia PA: Penn State Press, 1996.
- — Maarten Wisse, Scripture between Creativity and Identity. A Hermeneutical Theory Building upon Four Interpretations of Job. Utrecht: Ars Disputandi, 2003.