The Book of Job : A Contest of Moral Imaginations

Carol Newsom illuminates the relation between the aesthetic forms of Job and the claims made by its various characters. Her innovative approach makes possible a new understanding of the unity of the book that rejects its dismantling in historical criticism and the flattening of the text that characterizes many final form readings. Additionally, she rehabilitates the moral perspectives represented by certain voices of the book that modern critics have treated with disdain. "In this new study, Carol Newsom illuminates the relation between the aesthetic forms of the book and the claims made by its various characters. Her innovative approach makes possible a new understanding of the unity of the book of Job; she rejects the dismantling of the book by historical criticism and the flattening of the text that characterizes certain final form readings. Additionally, she is able to rehabilitate the moral perspectives represented by certain voices of the book - perspectives that modern critics have often treated with disdain. By looking beneath the propositional claims of the characters into the metaphors and figures with which their arguments are framed, she reveals new dimensions of the issues that engage them. The result is a recognition that the argument going on in the book - not just between Job and his friends but between parts of the book itself - is much tighter and more complex than has been realized."--Jacket CONTENTS......Page 10 1. THE BOOK OF JOB AS POLYPHONIC TEXT......Page 16 2. THE IMPREGNABLE WORD......Page 45 3. CRITICAL CURIOSITY......Page 85 4. CONSOLATIONS OF GOD......Page 103 5. BROKEN IN PIECES BY WORDS / BREAKING WORDS IN PIECES......Page 143 6. DIALOGICS AND ALLEGORY: THE WISDOM POEM OF JOB 28......Page 182 7. A WORKING RHETORICAL WORLD: JOB'S SELF-WITNESS IN CHAPTERS 29-31......Page 196 8. THE DISSATISFIED READER: ELIHU AND THE HISTORICITY OF THE MORAL IMAGINATION......Page 213 9. THE VOICE FROM THE WHIRLWIND: THE TRAGIC SUBLIME AND THE LIMITS OF DIALOGUE......Page 247 CONCLUSION......Page 272 NOTES......Page 278 BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 300 INDEX......Page 312 Carol A. Newsom. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 287-297) And Index.