
The Annual Lecture of the International Centre for Biblical Interpretation will be based on ‘Humanising Job’, by Katherine Southwood, Professor of Hebrew Bible / Old Testament, University of Oxford.
Rather than seeing the book of Job as an abstract and disembodied treatise on the problem of evil, this presentation will suggest that it is important to attend to the way the central character describes his own experiences of pain. Through focusing on how Job’s pain is communicated and responded to, the text calls for greater receptivity and empathy toward those who experience pain, rather than the perhaps the more comfortable inclination towards problem-solving and theorising, as demonstrated by Job’s friends. In short, we are invited to humanise Job and in turn to humanise our own responses when confronted with pain.
This will take place on Wednesday 27 May at 7.30pm in Lecture Theatre TC 001 at Francis Close Hall, University of Gloucestershire.