Monday, December 12, 2011

Job, and some implications for Christadelphian theology

I have been posting on my new blog about the Book of Job and in my latest post I started to discuss some theological implications. As some of these relate to Christadelphians ideas about sin, human nature and inherited consequences of Adam's sin, I thought I would open it up here for anyone who wished to discuss the implications for Christadelphians.

Here is a snippet from my latest post:
In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. (Job 1:22 ESV)
Job is described in the prologue to the book as a perfect man, blameless, upright, sinless, pious, and possibly the wisest of the wise. The Hebrew word translated "blameless" (or "perfect" in KJV) is תם and means whole, complete, lacking in nothing, fully integrated. In other words, he represented humanity at its best. ...

There are echoes here of the Garden of Eden: one "representative" human couple being put to the test, with consequences for humanity; the test administered by a snake in one story and by the Adversary in the other. However, it's the Genesis story which has received the most attention by theologians and which has had the greatest impact on Christian dogma about sin, suffering and human nature (although less so in Jewish dogma). No doubt this has been the result of the huge impact which Augustine had on the formation on Christian dogma. Augustine argued that suffering is not caused by God; rather, the exercise of free will by humans has led to sin and suffering in the world as just punishment for Adam's disobedience. Augustine's view was that all of humanity was seminally present in the loins of Adam, so all of humanity is punished. The sin of Adam (or, in some Protestant theologies, the consequences of his sin) is inherited by all human beings so that humanity is utterly depraved in nature. Augustine's view differed in this from Irenaeus who earlier argued that evil comes from God in order to allow humans to develop morally and spiritually.
But both viewpoints are challenged by the Book of Job where:
  1. God is directly responsible for Job's suffering
  2. Job suffered "for no reason" and as he was "whole, perfect, fully integrated" no moral or spiritual development was necessary
  3. Job is not presented as in any way depraved or sinful - on the contrary, he is upheld as blameless and sinless
  4. Suffering is not a punishment or consequence for sin.
If you would like to discuss the Book of Job in general please post your comments on my other blog. If you wish to discuss the implications for Christadelphians specifically, please feel free to comment here.