Okay, so that part probably wouldn't appear if a similar book were written nowadays, but the belief that there is some kind of reason for all the crap that occurs still holds true today.
Yes, it does, in religions and sects which still believe, or hope, that people were as unsophisticated as they were back in OT times. I think that the people in "charge" of what things meant, back in the day (Pharisees?), told these stories to people so that they would identify with Job, and would see the need for (blind) belief and obedience to the proscribed version of God. Very fable. Very fabulous, in fact. Fabricated? Hmmm.
People today are still told by their churches that they must blindly obey or they will be tested as Job was. Smokescreen. People endure trials of the spirit because shitty things happen to people. It's not initiated by god, or anything else but the chance we all encounter in this mortal life.
To me, the trials of Job represent our need to foist our dysfunctional aspects of our lives off on the "unknowable," to blame it on the "will of God." Mostly so we don't have to face the depressing truth that no Crusader waits on our request to slay our dragons in our hours of need. The Creator gives us tools, and, like a parent, leaves us to develop our powers of discernment, compromise, and reconciliation. Or, if we choose, the powers of subterfuge, sabotage, and obfuscation.
Sorry, it's Sunday, and, being a PK (a very lapsed one), I felt like a sermon.
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IMO
Date: 2009-09-14 12:20 am (UTC)Yes, it does, in religions and sects which still believe, or hope, that people were as unsophisticated as they were back in OT times. I think that the people in "charge" of what things meant, back in the day (Pharisees?), told these stories to people so that they would identify with Job, and would see the need for (blind) belief and obedience to the proscribed version of God. Very fable. Very fabulous, in fact. Fabricated? Hmmm.
People today are still told by their churches that they must blindly obey or they will be tested as Job was. Smokescreen. People endure trials of the spirit because shitty things happen to people. It's not initiated by god, or anything else but the chance we all encounter in this mortal life.
To me, the trials of Job represent our need to foist our dysfunctional aspects of our lives off on the "unknowable," to blame it on the "will of God." Mostly so we don't have to face the depressing truth that no Crusader waits on our request to slay our dragons in our hours of need. The Creator gives us tools, and, like a parent, leaves us to develop our powers of discernment, compromise, and reconciliation. Or, if we choose, the powers of subterfuge, sabotage, and obfuscation.
Sorry, it's Sunday, and, being a PK (a very lapsed one), I felt like a sermon.