Healthy Grief
Grieving Process by Kubler-Ross and the Story of Job
The most painful part of the life is loss. Grief is a range of emotions and behaviors shown by people when confronted with a sudden loss. Kubler-Ross made a great contribution to the study of mourning in 1969 by introducing the “5 stages of grief”: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. In the book of Job, the brief prologue setting forth the story and the brief epilogue completing it sandwich a lengthy series of dialogues and monologues regarding the nature of and reasoning for suffering. Job’s visiting friends come to provide comfort and serve as both discussants and foils for his soliloquies. Each of the five stages of grief identified by Kubler-Ross may be clearly seen within the text of Job.
Comparison and contrasts the grieving process and stages of Kubler-Ross to the story of Job. |Comparison |Contrasts |
|The first stage is denial. First, he lost his wealth. Job lost all of |.Job in the biblical narrative is a contrast to the model he not only | |his children. Job 4: 18-20. After that, he physically afflicted with |does not display denial he never really express shock at the | |horrible boils all over his body. |catastrophic losses. |
|Anger is the second stage. Here one usually manifest is some type of |Job 1:20-22, 2:10, shows Job to be an ever-faithful loving servant of | |anger at oneself or towards others and often towards God. Job directs |God and he does not direct any anger toward God. Instead, he makes a | |anger inwards toward himself. |point by praising the Lord’s name. ( Job, 3:1-26) | |. Stage 3 is the bargaining stage. Job does not enter into this stage |. Job does not bargain with God, in fact when God speaks to him out | |despite the plea of his wife to “curse God and die”. |of the whirlwind in Job 38 and 39. | |Stage 4 of Dr. Kubler-Ross grief model is depression. Job’s withdrawal|For seven days, Job and his friends kept
The most painful part of the life is loss. Grief is a range of emotions and behaviors shown by people when confronted with a sudden loss. Kubler-Ross made a great contribution to the study of mourning in 1969 by introducing the “5 stages of grief”: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. In the book of Job, the brief prologue setting forth the story and the brief epilogue completing it sandwich a lengthy series of dialogues and monologues regarding the nature of and reasoning for suffering. Job’s visiting friends come to provide comfort and serve as both discussants and foils for his soliloquies. Each of the five stages of grief identified by Kubler-Ross may be clearly seen within the text of Job.
Comparison and contrasts the grieving process and stages of Kubler-Ross to the story of Job. |Comparison |Contrasts |
|The first stage is denial. First, he lost his wealth. Job lost all of |.Job in the biblical narrative is a contrast to the model he not only | |his children. Job 4: 18-20. After that, he physically afflicted with |does not display denial he never really express shock at the | |horrible boils all over his body. |catastrophic losses. |
|Anger is the second stage. Here one usually manifest is some type of |Job 1:20-22, 2:10, shows Job to be an ever-faithful loving servant of | |anger at oneself or towards others and often towards God. Job directs |God and he does not direct any anger toward God. Instead, he makes a | |anger inwards toward himself. |point by praising the Lord’s name. ( Job, 3:1-26) | |. Stage 3 is the bargaining stage. Job does not enter into this stage |. Job does not bargain with God, in fact when God speaks to him out | |despite the plea of his wife to “curse God and die”. |of the whirlwind in Job 38 and 39. | |Stage 4 of Dr. Kubler-Ross grief model is depression. Job’s withdrawal|For seven days, Job and his friends kept
References: Kubler-Ross, E. 1973, On Death and Dying, Retrieved on December 15, 2011 from http://library.gcu.edu:2048/login?url=http://site.ebrary.com/lib/grandcanyon/doc Lyon, Deborah S. MD Before Kubler-Ross: Lessons About Grief From the Book of Job, Retrieved on December 15, 2011 from http://journals.lww.com/greenjournal/Abstract/retrieved Saint Joseph Edition of The New American Bible, catholic Book Publishing CO, New York.