Job: Poet of Existence

Shortly after Dr. Terrien had completed his illuminating book on 'The Psalms and Their Meaning for Today', he decided to write a book about Job. This book, like its predecessor, is intended for the general reader: to give him a fuller knowledge, clearer understanding, and deeper appreciation of the religious and literary values of a truly great dramatic poem. Job, more than any other book of the Bible, belongs to the literature of the world. Yet who reads this poem in our day? Classics bear the burden of greatness. They are celebrated and unknown. Of such is Job, today unknown even to those who claim no immunity to cultural urges. Incidentally, the fact that this classic happens to belong to the Bible does not explain its quality of 'terra incognita', for it is neglected also by synagogue and church goers who daily read other portions of Scripture. The ancient Hebrew poem is modern, for it proffers a plea for pure religion. The poet of Job did not attempt to solve the problem of evil, nor did he propose a vindication of the justice of God. For him, any attempt of man to justify God would have been an act of arrogance. But he knew and promoted in the immediacy of faith a mode of life and in the very pangs of insecurity a sense of triumph. He transmuted the taste of sorrow into the knowledge of joy - not in the shallowness of gaiety, to be sure, but the depth of a joy brought by the presence of one who moves and warms the worlds.