Overview

The Book of Job is about a question for all of us. Why is there suffering? Job is a personal book that speaks to each of us as we face suffering and meaninglessness. Job is a theological book that both builds on the Biblical Worldview and prepares its readers for the Gospel. Job is a philosophical book that critically examines solutions to this question. It is a book centered around a philosophical dialogue. It requires us to find an answer by going deeper in our understanding of the meaning of good and evil. Job's friends call him to repent of fruit sin but his Friend calls him to repent of root sin.

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9781736542422

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If the heavens declare the glory of God and the book of Job speaks of these same truths, then it behooves us to listen carefully to this message. Yet, all too often creation and general revelation are overlooked avenues in the book of Job. Owen Anderson's Job: A Philosophical Commentary takes us down some of the unexplored paths to help us remember that God is both the God of Scripture and of nature. Readers who want to understand Job in a deeper way will therefore profit from Anderson's work. J. V. Fesko is Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, MS Owen Anderson has written a provocative and appealing new commentary on the biblical book of Job. The manuscript is written in clear and accessible prose-almost conversational in its informality. Anderson argues convincingly that the most popular interpretations and commentaries on the book have missed its main point. He suggests that the author of Job is in fact offering a substantial defense of God's innocence, something along the lines of John Hicks's soul-making theodicy. Through a close reading of the text, Anderson reveals that the questions posed to Job by God at the end of the book are not, contrary to widely held opinion, merely rhetorical. Instead, God's questions are a kind of study guide for Job, through which God is teaching Job about the true meaning of his suffering. Although provocative in its originality, Anderson's text will not scandalize the faithful. He draws strong parallels between the content of Job and that of other biblical texts, including Genesis, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and (especially) the Psalms. His approach is solidly within the tradition of magisterial Protestantism, untainted by fideism. He successfully brings out the strong philosophical arguments about God contained in the text-its implicit natural theology. The book will appeal to both a popular and a more scholarly audience. Many Christians, puzzled by the book of Job and by the available commentaries on it, will find Anderson's book helpful and illuminating. Scholars will have to take Anderson's arguments into account, whether or not they find them ultimately convincing. I enthusiastically endorse the publication of the book. Robert C. Koons is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin Rarely does an insightful philosopher write a philosophical commentary on a difficult book in the Bible. Yes, many biblical scholars, theologians, and pastors have written about The Book of Job, but few, to my knowledge, have approached it as Owen Anderson has done. He considers moral evil in light of natural evil, the clarity of God's revelation, and God's purposes in suffering. It ends up that by being philosophical, he is also biblical, theological, and pastoral. Douglas R. Groothuis is Professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary In his treatment of Job, Anderson moves beyond the familiar question of why bad things happen to good people to the even more fundamental question of whether life has meaning at all, inviting the reader into conversation with not only Job and himself, but also with other great characters of world literature and even the divine. I found this manuscript to be of great interest and believe it will be engaging and valuable to readers from many different walks of life. I eagerly await the published book! Jason Jewell is Director of the Center for Great Books & Human Flourishing at Faulkner University

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