Overview

"On Job: Reflections of an Accomplished Sinner on the Suffering of the Just originated as chapter by chapter reflections on the Book of Job, while the author's father was dying in a distant state. It was written and is intended to be read as an encouragement to the medieval tradition of lectio divina-one of the regular forms of monastic prayer-which begins with the reading of the sacred text, usually aloud (the lectio), followed by meditatio-a consideration of some of the important words, images, and occurrences therein. Being a scholar himself, Dr. Fendt turned to several of the more exacting scholars to ""divine"" more precisely how the original language was working. This led to his here recorded meditatio (meditation) and oratio (prayer), leaving it to the reader to join with his and her own oratio and contemplatio on each of the chapters of Job. It is offered as an invitation to a very old prayer, going on under the busy-ness of the world for nearly as long as its busy-ness has been recorded."

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9781621389668

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Reviews

"""In On Job, Gene Fendt patiently, gently, and creatively invites readers to engage the text of the Book of Job by use of the venerable monastic practice of meditative reading of scripture known as lectio divina. Fendt helpfully exemplifies this method throughout his own exposition of one of the books of Hebrew scripture that has long posed an array of historical, linguistic, literary, and interpretive challenges to preachers, scholars, and lay readers alike. He takes due note of many of these challenges, ancient and modern, but addressing these does not distract him from what I take to be a central focus of his work: To encourage readers, by the example he provides in this work, to consider undertaking, in at least some measure, the practice of lectio divina as an apt instrument for breaking open the words of scripture.""-PHILIP J. ROSSI, S.J. ""The Book of Job makes for notoriously difficult reading, for many reasons: the confusing state of the text, the seeming circularity of content and argument, the tendency of interpreters to grind assorted axes as they project their worldviews onto its characters. Gene Fendt takes a more daring, because more traditional, route: assuming the text to be inspired and coherent, with a message of utmost importance, he sits at the feet of Job and patiently traces its lessons on the justice of God and of man, innocence, happiness, guilt, suffering, the wildness of sin, the paradoxes of wealth and poverty, the hard road to discovering the one thing needful. His commentary sparkles with insights that bring Job alive as a work of philosophical wisdom and spiritual challenge for all seekers and believers.""-PETER KWASNIEWSKI ""Gene Fendt is an incisive guide to the bright secret of God that Job reveals 'like light seen for an instant through the crack of a closed door.' He allows us to see the secret brightness behind the mystery of suffering. He helps us solve the riddle that the Book of Job sets and to see the poetry of the riddle itself. He allows us to peer through the crack of the closed door, and even prises the door open a little, revealing the light within.""-JOSEPH PEARCE"

"""In On Job, Gene Fendt patiently, gently, and creatively invites readers to engage the text of the Book of Job by use of the venerable monastic practice of meditative reading of scripture known as lectio divina. Fendt helpfully exemplifies this method throughout his own exposition of one of the books of Hebrew scripture that has long posed an array of historical, linguistic, literary, and interpretive challenges to preachers, scholars, and lay readers alike. He takes due note of many of these challenges, ancient and modern, but addressing these does not distract him from what I take to be a central focus of his work: To encourage readers, by the example he provides in this work, to consider undertaking, in at least some measure, the practice of lectio divina as an apt instrument for breaking open the words of scripture.""-PHILIP J. ROSSI, S.J. ""The Book of Job makes for notoriously difficult reading, for many reasons: the confusing state of the text, the seeming circularity of content and argument, the tendency of interpreters to grind assorted axes as they project their worldviews onto its characters. Gene Fendt takes a more daring, because more traditional, route: assuming the text to be inspired and coherent, with a message of utmost importance, he sits at the feet of Job and patiently traces its lessons on the justice of God and of man, innocence, happiness, guilt, suffering, the wildness of sin, the paradoxes of wealth and poverty, the hard road to discovering the one thing needful. His commentary sparkles with insights that bring Job alive as a work of philosophical wisdom and spiritual challenge for all seekers and believers.""-PETER KWASNIEWSKI ""Gene Fendt is an incisive guide to the bright secret of God that Job reveals 'like light seen for an instant through the crack of a closed door.' He allows us to see the secret brightness behind the mystery of suffering. He helps us solve the riddle that the Book of Job sets and to see the poetry of the riddle itself. He allows us to peer through the crack of the closed door, and even prises the door open a little, revealing the light within.""-JOSEPH PEARCE"

Author Information

GENE FENDT is the Albertus Magnus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Nebraska, Kearney-the very middle of the very middle of the country. It is a place conducive to long reflection. While teaching there for 35 years, he has published work on all the major philosophers (counting Augustine, Anselm, and Aquinas among them) as well as Shakespeare, Pinter, and Tom Stoppard, and has won awards for creative writing in poetry and playwrighting. His most recent previous book is Camus' Plague: Myth for our World (Notre Dame, IN: St. Augustine's Press, 2022).

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