Job 1

The primary biblical text that addresses human suffering is a comedic folktale. How are we meant to process this?

Sometimes I picture its author looking down at us and shaking his head.

It is as if every person who asks why bad things happen to good people takes a potsherd and starts scraping.

My son’s death did not evoke in me an interest in the problem of suffering.

I mostly agree with Jeffrey Weiss about prayer. I think St. Paul would too.

God’s response to Job is cold comfort when you have terminal cancer.

Like Dmitri Karamazov, Robert Mapplethorpe knows that the beautiful is a battleground—and he's happy to play on the devil's side.