Artistic, Literary, and Philosophical Consequences of the Book of Job

Session Submission Type: Panel Session

Abstract

Interpreters have turned to the Book of Job in countless different times and circumstances. Different experiences and motivations draw readers to this seemingly universal story, of an upright human being who suffers and asks why. The tale has been retold and re-interpreted for centuries in the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions, and influenced culture well beyond the boundaries of religious contexts.
The three papers in this panel examine three different kinds of interpretation and reception of Job--distinctive pieces of what C. L. Seow defines as the "history of consequences," which includes a wide variety of responses to the text. The panel explores three different periods and types of response: medieval Jewish philosophical commentary; 19th-century English Romanticism; and post-Shoah German-Jewish poetry. Each paper explores an original, creative engagement with Job and addresses similar elements, including intertextuality, word choice, and choice of medium, in addition to abstract content.
The significance of bringing together such a diverse grouping is both to expand the scholarship on specific interpretations of Job, but also to explore the richness of the responses to this text, as instances of a beautiful and deeply varied living vine of interpretation connecting the reception of Job to its source.

Sub Unit

• Bible and the History of Biblical Interpretation

Chair

• choon-leong. Seow, Vanderbilt University

Individual Presentations

• Joseph Ibn Kaspi – is the Book of Job a Critique of Jewish Theology? - Gadi Charles William Weber, Bar-Ilan University

• William Blake as Job the Artist and the Biblical Illustrations in 18-19th Century London - Mei-Ying Sung, FoGuang University

• Fragmented Order: The Poetry of the Book of Job and Nelly Sachs - Janice Thompson, King's College

Zoom Host

• Zoom Host 01