[May 2001 journal entry]
The “Who are you to challenge me?” condescension/bullying the ‘scrapheap’ Job faces from ‘God’ in the whirlwind section of the story/play constitutes a critical decision point for audiences/readers. (Bethge, in his essay in the 1968 Bonhoeffer in a World Come of Age, says Bonhoeffer wrestled with this issue.) If audiences/readers accept that Job is out of line with his ‘scrapheap’ questions/conclusions, then they will answer “No one” – characteristic of the ‘religious’ sphere – to the question “If not Job, then who?” It took me several years to realize that ‘God’ as understood within the ‘religious’ T/O paradigm would accept no other answer. A ‘non-religious’ path leads me to object strongly to the ‘scrapheap’ Job’s being bullied and intimidated by ‘God’ in the whirlwind section of the story/play.
