Job, Jung and Theodicy - The Cathedral of St. Philip

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What is Theodicy? Fr theodicee’, coined by Leibnitz (1710) Gr , theos, god + dike, justice: the theological discipline that seeks to explain how the existence of evil in the world can be reconciled with the justice and goodness of God. This question is at the heart of the Book of Job. There have been many references to the Book of Job down through the years and in many cultural contexts. William Blake famously illustrated Job, and other references include Rabbi Harold Kushner’s “When Bad Things Happen to Good People,” C.S. Lewis’ “The Problem of Pain,” and writers such as Bronte (Jane Eyre), G.K. Chesterton (The Man Who was Thursday), Herman Melville (Moby Dick), and musicians such as Joni Mitchell (“The Sire of Sorrow”), U‐2 (Ultraviolet), “Godspell” (All for the Best), to name a few. Perhaps the most well known and theologically substantive response was Carl Jung’s book, Answer to Job.
The Narrative Structure of Job • Job is an exceptionally pious man, who was very prosperous and had 7 sons and 3 daughters. Satan shows up, and suggests that Job is pious only because God has “put a wall around {him} and blessed” Job, his favorite servant, with prosperity. Moreover, Satan suggests that if God touches Job’s “possessions,” Job would curse him. God gives Satan permission to test Job’s righteousness. • All of Job’s possessions are destroyed, and a “ruach” (wind/spirit) causes the house of the firstborn to collapse, killing all of Job’s offspring who were gathered for a feast. Job does not curse God, but shaves his head, tears his clothes, and says famously, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” • Job endures all of this without reproaching God. Satan solicits permission to afflict his person as well, and God gives it. Satan smites Job with dreadful boils. Job, seated in ashes, scrapes his skin with broken pottery. His wife prompts him to “curse God and die.” He answers, “You speak as one of the foolish…shall we receive the good and not the bad?” • Three friends of Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, (later joined by Elihu) try to console him. They spend seven days sitting on the ground with Job, who finally “curses the day he was born.” Job’s friends do not waver from the belief that he must have done something sinful to incite God’s punishment. They berate him for refusing to confess, even as they are at a loss as to which sins he has committed Their working theology is that God always rewards good, and punishes evil. There is no hint of divine discretion and mystery. Meanwhile, in this series of “speech cycles,” Job maintains that there is no reason for God to punish him.
Page 1: “Job, Jung and Theodicy” Cathed
Page 5 and 6: God Speaks to Job out of the Whirlw
Page 7 and 8: Carl Jung (1875—1961) was a Swiss
Page 9 and 10: Job, Jung, the Collective Unconscio
Page 11 and 12: Messianic Anticipation in Job, and
Page 13 and 14: “Sing to me of the man, Muse, the

Job, Jung and Theodicy - The Cathedral of St. Philip

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