A review of ‘Job for everyone’ by John Goldingay

‘Job for everyone’ sounds a bit like one of those manifesto promises made by politicians which they never fulfill. In the case of John Goldingay’s little book, I believe it delivers on the promise. In all honesty, most Bible readers find Job to be amongst the Bible’s most challenging books. Not only is there the problem of its name, and whether it should be pronounced Job (as in ‘hob’) or Job (as in ‘robe’) – but also its content. In it we see a good man brought down with God’s consent, and a bunch of his supposed friends proffering him theological platitudes dressed up as comfort.

As I have dipped into this book, I have found a blend of  scriptural analysis and pastoral wisdom which makes the contentions surrounding Job recede into the background. Each segment of the Bible book is printed (so you don’t need to have Goldingay’s book in one hand and the Bible in the other), and is then followed up with a pastoral application in an anecdotal style. He writes in a sympathetic tone out of deep personal experience with a disarming honesty. Here he talks about his fist wife’s twenty-five years of living with multiple sclerosis, and compares the experience to weight-lifting:

You learn to lift one weight, and you can’t imagine that you could lift one which was twice as heavy, but gradually you learn to lift heavier and heavier weights.

If you are looking for an in-depth theological analysis of Job from which to preach, then this is probably not the book for you. If, on the other hand. you want to reacquaint yourself with a Bible book which you have avoided – then you could not do better.

‘Job for everyone’ published by SPCK ISBN – 9780281061372, 224 pages. Paperback – £9.99