God Trauma and Wisdom Therapy: A Commentary on Job

Reviewed by:

G. Connor Salter, Professional Writing alumnus from Taylor University, Upland, IN.

Title:

God Trauma and Wisdom Therapy: A Commentary on Job

Author:

Norman C. Habel

Publisher:

Fortress Press

http://fortresspress.com

Publication:

March 5, 2024

Format:

Hardcover

Length:

171 pages

OVERVIEW

What if the Book of Job is not only a showcase of suffering but also of the therapy that can heal suffering? Norman C. Habel has been pondering these questions since that day decades ago when his family’s house burned down and a well-meaning pastor made a flippant comment about “the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.” Over the last 40 years, he has returned to the Book of Job multiple times to consider what it can teach us about suffering, trauma, and healing. Here, he specifically considers the book of Job as an example of what he calls the wisdom tradition—a view that challenges seeing God in covenant terms, emphasizing God as the lord of creation who shows the lessons about wisdom that the natural world shows us all.

As Habel goes section by section through the Book of Job, he shows what happens if we view Job as a trauma patient expressing their pain, how his responses fit stages of grief, and how God ultimately goes from being the apparent source of Job’s pain to being the counselor who heals Job’s pain.

Habel’s approach fits into a specific tradition that not all readers will care for. Where some theologians see Job’s story as a historical event, he sees it as a legendary story retold in Israel’s post-exile period. Where covenant theologians argue for reading each biblical book as fitting into a harmonious narrative, he sees it as challenging earlier books that talked about God in covenant terms. Where other theologians might talk about Satan as causing Job’s trauma, he apparently sees that as splitting hairs, and talks about God traumatizing Job. Where other theologians might talk about God’s speech about the stars and animals as showing the wisdom and design in his creation, Habel talks about God as someone who has explored creation and found wisdom there.

Since he frequently alludes to the fact he’s discussed Job in earlier books (like his 1985 commentary on Job for Westminster John Knox Press), it’s hard to tell how much these are flat statements, and how much they are him summarizing a more nuanced idea he has discussed elsewhere. That particularly presents a problem when he talks about the Book of Job as challenging the covenant theology narrative. He may be saying that the Book of Job doesn’t fit the covenant narrative at all, and challenges it. Or he may mean that Job’s story depicts another part of the Bible’s overarching narrative: there is God’s covenant relationship with Israel that teaches us about God, and then there is the proof of God in nature that Romans 1:20 talks about, teaching us other things about God. Given that Habel’s other works include Rainbows of Mysteries: Meeting the Sacred in Nature, he could easily be aiming for the latter. Since he writes in such terse sentences, it’s hard to tell when he’s making a new thesis, and when he’s building on what he’s written in the past.

That terseness creates problems elsewhere. For example, when he talks about the wisdom tradition and God as a wisdom scientist, it’s not until about halfway into the book that he explains those terms in more detail.  In short, this reads less like a standalone book, more like an addendum to his earlier works.

The ideas are all fascinating, and some are very useful. His depiction of how Job goes through different phases of trauma and healing is particularly helpful—especially when he considers how pious explanations that try to shortcut grief don’t help. He even talks about how therapists who don’t give their patients room to grieve can re-traumatize them—a sad but important lesson, perhaps especially for Christians in denominations that don’t talk enough about therapy to explain what a good therapist looks like.

It’s clear that Habel has spent years considering his own trauma and where poorly directed therapy takes people. Sadly, the writing and editing don’t tie the ideas together enough to clarify the lessons he wants to provide. It’s all quite interesting but it doesn’t have enough footnotes or organization to show how Habel is building on 40 years of work and what new things he is saying this time around.

 ASSESSMENT

Rating (1 to 5 stars):

Three stars

Suggested Audience:

Theologians reading the Book of Job as an exploration of trauma therapy or a description of a wisdom school of Israelite thought.

Christian Impact:

The text may be most directly applicable to liberal theologians who read the Book of Job as an allegory or legend, but Habel presents some thought-provoking ideas that theologians of any tradition should consider. That may be especially true today when denominations splitting and the #ChurchToo movement has brought questions about trauma to the forefront.

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