For modern readers, Job’s unparalleled suffering and anguished complaints—“Why died I not in the womb? Why do ye persecute me?”—have given Job his reputation as an iconic skeptic and challenger of God. For medieval readers, in contrast, Job’s forbearance in the first two chapters—“God giveth, God taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord”—made Job a paragon of Christian patience. Between these two versions of Job, this talk explores a missing story, a story that captures the intellectual investments of Reformation-era literature and unsettles our modern understanding of the Book of Job.
Event—Public Programming
The Book of Job from Luther to Milton
