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.

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

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

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