Job's Final Insight, Narratives, and the Brain

In continental philosophy of religion, the hermeneutics of narratives takes a central role. Analytic philosophy of religion, on the other hand, considers religious statements mostly as assertions of fact. It examines the logical form and semantics of religious statements, addresses their logical commitments, and examines their epistemological status. Using the example of a passage in the Book of Job, it is investigated whether the methods of analytic philosophy are also suitable for analyzing religious narratives. The question is explored whether there is a genuine form of knowledge, besides propositional factual knowledge, which is bound to the form of narration. Particular attention will be paid to the inter-personal pragmatic embeddedness of narratives. The connection between second-personal knowledge and narratives is examined. Using the historical example of Ignatius of Loyola's theory of religious knowledge, it is argued that propositional argumentative knowledge is only one form of religious knowledge among others. The others are second-personal and narrative in character. Having thus established this distinct form of knowledge, it is asked whether our best empirical knowledge of the neurophysiological basis of intuitive and non-argumentative cognition provides a foundation for better understanding inter-personal religious cognition within narratives.

Káromkodásból katedrálist: lelkigondozás és spiritualitás összefüggései Jób könyvében

A Cathedral Built on Swearing? Interrelations between Counselling and Spirituality in the Book of Job. Given its enormous exegetical potential, pastoral care could clearly lay hold more of the Book of Job’s kerygmatic rather than its psychological certainties. In addition to the Book of Job being often read as a case study about the suffering person’s sense of justice and quest for meaning, Job’s experience has a spiritual overtone as well: he is faced with the question of the true nature of God and the need to find an adequate human response to it. Also, the Book is indicative of how people respond to the suffering and what witness and support they offer. In this paper, I evaluate the counselling strategies in the Book of Job identified by Manfred Oeming. I pay special attention to Job’s wife, and I argue that she should not be considered a proper counsellor, as she herself is stricken by the same tragic events as is Job. Instead, she is a fellow sufferer, although acknowledged as such only by extracanonical literature. What is more, she may be identified as the partner or the first and foremost caregiver of the sufferer whose challenges and difficulties remain unidentified, unspoken of, and unaddressed most of the time. As for the spiritual issues aroused by suffering, I suggest that both counsellor and counsellee must reach spiritual maturity to be able to understand and accept their experience of suffering as a genuine experience of God, and so, given time, this may make space for God’s theophany and healing presence. Keywords: Book of Job, suffering, spirituality, pastoral care, counselling, fellow sufferer, caregiver

Satanological Myth in the Coptic literature and its development

The article deals with the satanic myth, its Biblical genesis and further development in Judaism and early Christianity as well as its variants in Coptic literature. The myth is based on the story about the fall of the Supreme Angel and his subsequent transformation into an evil spirit. Two versions of the myth are known conventionally called “The proud man” and the “Envious man”. The first is the “legend of Lucifer” when Satan wished to become higher than God or equal to Him and was cast down. This legend goes back to the Biblical prophets as well as the pre-Christian exegesis. The second version describes how Satan was cast down for refusing to worship Adam. This legend is partly rooted in the book of Job and could have developed as a result of two coexisting, however, separate motives were found in the Jewish and early Christian exegesis. Both variants occur in great detail in various Coptic texts, including magical ones. The Biblical basis of the myth enlarged by various additions. Besides, there is also a version, which comprises details from both legends. The Satanological myth, like other apocryphal legends about angels and demons based upon the Biblical narrative in Coptic literature is developed in two ways: 1) personification of abstract concepts and properties, 2) allegorical interpretation of stories regarding Biblical characters as legends about angels or demons.

Animal Suffering, God and Lessons from the Book of Job

Nature shows itself to us in ambivalent ways. Breathtaking beauty and cruelty lie close together. A Darwinian image of nature seems to imply that nature is a mere place of violence, cruelty and mercilessness. In this article, I first explore the question of whether such an interpretation of nature is not one-sided by being phrased in overly moral terms. Then, I outline how the problem of animal suffering relates to a specific understanding of God as moral agent. Finally, in the main part of the argumentation, I pursue the question to what extent the problem of animal (and human) suffering does not arise for a concept of God couched in less personalistic terms. If God’s perspective towards creation is rather de-anthropocentric, then moral concerns might be of less importance as we generally assume. Such an understanding of the divine is by no means alien to the biblical-theistic tradition. I argue that it finds strong echoes in the divine speeches in the Book of Job: They aim at teaching us to accept both the beauty and the tragic of existence in a creation that seen in its entirety is rather a-moral. Finally, I address the question what such a concept of God could mean for our existence.

Confronting Job’s Demons

The theme of demons connects three difficult passages in the Book of Job: Job’s curse on the day of his birth in 3:3–10, Eliphaz’s mocking censure of Job for that curse in 5:6–7, and 38:12–21, God’s challenge to Job for his appeal to demons. A crucial insight is provided by a Talmudic discussion of demons and human suffering, which connects Job 5:6–7 to Psalm 91:5–8.

Космонимия в cлавянских переводах библейской Книги Иова

Cosmonymy in Slavic Translations of the Biblical Book of JobThis article explores the names of Venus, Pleiades, the Great Bear and Orion’s Belt in Slavic translations of the biblical Book of Job. The author proposes hypotheses about the etymology of Church Slavonic names for the following celestial objects: (1) the name денница for Venus originates from folk cosmonymy and was introduced into religious discourse by Apostle of the Slavs Constantine-Cyril; (2) the name власожелищи is etymologised as a merger of two nominations: South Slavic Власи ‘Pleiads’ and a hapax legomenon from the Book of Job *желищи ‘Great Bear’, from Hebrew Āsh or Aish ‘funeral convoy’; (3) the name кружилия for Orion is also connected with Hebrew cosmonymy and points to the mythical giant Nimrod, who was tied with a belt to the sky for his rebellion against God. Kosmonimia w słowiańskich tłumaczeniach biblijnej Księgi HiobaNiniejszy artykuł analizuje nazwy Wenus, Plejad, Wielkiej Niedźwiedzicy i Pasa Oriona w tłumaczeniach biblijnej Księgi Hioba na języki słowiańskie. Autorka przedstawia hipotezy dotyczące etymologii kilku cerkiewnosłowiańskich nazw obiektów kosmicznych: 1) nazwa planety Wenus денница została zapożyczona z kosmonimii ludowej i wprowadzona do dyskursu religijnego przez Apostoła Słowian Konstantyna-Cyryla; 2) nazwa власожелищи jest traktowana jako połączenie dwóch nazw: płd. słow. Власи ‘Plejady’ i hapaks legomenon z biblijnej Księgi Hioba *желищи ‘Wielka Niedźwiedzica’, od hebrajskiego Āsh lub Aish ʽkondukt pogrzebowyʼ; 3) nazwa Oriona кружилия rownież związana jest z kosmonimią hebrajską i wskazuje na mitycznego olbrzyma Nimroda, skazanego przez Boga na przywiązanie pasem do sklepienia niebieskiego.

“Why did I not die in the womb?” Job’s cursing the day of his birth in the interpretations of Gregory the Great and Thomas Aquinas (a comparative approach)

The Book of Job presents a just, blameless man, who after being afflicted with great pain and suffering begins to curse the day of his birth. The aim of the article is to elucidate the reasons for and the meaning of Job’s harsh words by comparing two different interpretations of the passage offered by Gregory the Great and Thomas Aquinas. Both expositions seem to be incompatible regarding: the reasons for and the aims of Job’s cursing, the moral evaluation of his cursing, the reasons for and the objects of Job’s sorrow, the virtuous way of expressing sorrow. On the other hand, they seem compatible concerning the admission of the fact of experiencing sorrow by Job and the moral imperative to tame sorrow. The incompatibilities appear to be rooted in two different approaches to passions (the Stoic versus the Peripatetic one) and in different evaluations of earthly life and goods. It is shown that Aquinas’ interpretation is more faithful to the text and relies on a more adequate anthropology and psychology.

The Book of Psalms in a New Ukrainian Translation, Psalms 41-71

The new translation of the Book of Psalms is part of a large project to translate the Holy Scriptures into Ukrainian, which has been underway since 2018. The project has already translated the New Testament (the edition is being prepared in 2022), poetic books of the Bible (in addition to the Psalms, the Book of Job, Proverbs, the Book of Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs), translation of the Pentateuch and the Book of Prophet. The translation of the Psalms offered in Theological Reflections is the first publication of the above-mentioned translated books of Scripture.