This volume analyzes how a narrator from the ancient Wisdom School portrays the deep trauma experiences of Job in his brutal relations with his God and his friends. These experiences range from the trauma of meaningless existence to the trauma of human oppression. Job experiences God as a celestial spy, an angry adversary, and Job's potential murderer. As an innocent victim, Job seeks to take God to court but is frustrated by the inaccessibility of his God. Job experiences his friends as suffocating fools devoid of wisdom and as heartless comforters who assume Job is guilty of crimes and needs to make a covenant with God and repent. This analysis is informed by a contemporary trauma hermeneutic. After a long tirade of cries by Job against God and his friends, the Wisdom narrator intervenes with a brilliant Wisdom manifesto in which he raises the pivotal question "Where can wisdom be found?" The answer is not "in the mind of God" but "in nature." God himself does the research and finds wisdom in the forces of nature, a discovery that anticipates the healing experience of Job. Job, however, takes a final oath in anticipation of litigation. A young arbiter responds, claiming that the breath of God has given him the wisdom to answer Job. In the climax of the narrative a voice, tantamount to a Wisdom therapist, addresses Job from a whirlwind. The voice does not declare Job innocent or guilty. Instead, Job is taken on a tour of the cosmos, a tour that enables his healing. Job is challenged to discern how Wisdom has been the primordial force that has designed, integrated, and sustained all the realms of the cosmos. Wisdom is a force innate in everything from the clouds to the eagle, a cosmic Presence Job is challenged to discern. When Job discerns that Presence, he is healed, retracts his case against God, and gets rid of his dust and ashes. Job is transformed from having a victim consciousness to having a cosmic wisdom consciousness.
Norman C. Habel is a Professorial Fellow at Flinders University in Adelaide. He has long been involved in issues of biblical interpretation, including reading the Bible from an ecological and a decolonizing perspective.
Preface Introduction: Trauma and Wisdom in Job I. God Trauma, Job 1-27 1. Family Tragedy and Denial - Job 1-2 2. Meaningless Existence - Job 3 3. Counsel of Eliphaz - Job 4 4. Suffocating Friends - Job 6 5. Human Oppression- Job 7 6. Counsel of Bildad- Job 8 7. Facing an Angry Adversary - Job 9-10 8. Counsel of Zophar - Job 11 9. Facing God Creating Chaos- Job 12 10. Facing God in Court - Job 13 11. Living without Hope - Job 14 12. Facing 'Bloody Murder' - Job 16-17 13. Wild Hope of a Trauma Sufferer - Job 19 14. Living with Social Psychosis - Job 21 15. Unanswered Prayers - Job 23 16. Oath Before a Heartless God - Job 27 II. Wisdom Therapy, Job 28-42 17. Wisdom Manifesto - Job 28 18. Job's Legislation Case that precedes his Wisdom Therapy - Job 31 19. Elihu, the Would-be Wisdom Arbiter - Job 32 20. The Wisdom Therapist stirs Job's Cosmic Consciousness - Job 38 21. The Wisdom Therapist stirs Job's Wisdom Consciousness -Job 39 22. The Wisdom Therapist stirs Job's Primordial Consciousness - Job 40-41 23. Job's Wisdom Healing Experience - Job 42 Conclusion
