Job Like Belief In The Face Of Evil Analysis

November 27, 2009

James Kellenberger’s Characterization of Job-Like Beliefs in the Face of Evil

How does James Kellenberger characterize a believer’s “Job-like” belief in the face of evil? Does such belief make sense as a response to the problem of evil? Why or why not?

Before exploring James Kellenberger’s characterizations of the Job-like believer’s beliefs in the face of evil, it is important that we first examine and understand exactly what is meant by “Job-like” – and to do that, we must consider the story of Job as it is written in the Hebrew Bible. Essentially, Job is a religious man who also happens to be a very prosperous individual. God approaches Satan seeking his opinion of Job, as he appears to quite clearly be a pious
As Job faces his suffering at the hands of God, he acknowledges that evil is being done unto him. However, he does not attempt to challenge God’s allowance of evil as much as he challenges the charge that called for such suffering to be brought upon him. He never loses faith in the goodness of God, even when faced with evil for no reason he can discern. So goes the second element of Job-like belief as stated by Kellenberger. A Job-like believer will always remain devout in their belief that God and His creations are good. If Job was to lose this devoutness, his faith in God would have failed, as his trust in His goodness would have as well. A Job-like believer will simply believe that all is well, and not attempt to discern or distinguish a reason for the existence of evil, but simply accept that it is God’s will. And if they believe that God is good (as the second element of Kellenberger’s description of Job-like belief calls for), then surely it will shine through the evil. Where someone else may see evil as evidence against the existence of God’s goodness, a Job-like believer will not, nor will they seek reason for evil, as it is merely a facet of God’s goodness in the end. In the simplest explanation, Kellenberger characterizes a Job-like believer’s response in the face
The theory itself fundamentally states that “one can come to see God’s goodness through experiencing evil” (Kellenberger, 338), not simply believing that the good is always there, but believing that evil is required to fully experience the goodness. This theory, to me, makes the most sense as a response to evil – at least in terms of a pious individual looking to remain comforted by God’s will. The question posed at the outset of this paper, “Does such belief make sense as a response to the problem of evil?” is completely subjective depending on what one is looking to achieve through responding to it at all. For example, an individual whose goal through their spirituality is to please God and remain in his good graces would find solace in the mirror of evil theory, as it provides an out for anyone suffering from God’s apparent evil – because in the end, that evil is required to see the good. The original idea that one simply accepts evil would not work in the favour of this individual, as it would leave them guessing and without any understanding as to why they are suffering in the first