The Book of Job and the Church's Theological Resources for Suffering
The book of Job has been read for centuries as the church's primary theological resource for suffering. The contemporary conversation about trauma raises new questions about how the church reads it. What does Job actually do with suffering? Does it answer the question of why the righteous suffer, or refuse the question? What does it teach about lament, about friends who try to explain pain, about a God who answers from the whirlwind? And how should faithful pastoral and personal engagement with trauma proceed in light of what the text offers and refuses?
This series works through Job with Michelle Keener, PhD, attending to what the book says, what it does not say, and what the church has at hand when its members carry traumatic suffering they cannot explain.
The Series
A multi-episode series on the long-form Thinking Christian podcast
With Michelle Keener, PhD. Airing publicly in 2027. Currently available to Patreon Members.
About Michelle Keener
Michelle Keener, PhD, is an Associate Research Fellow with the Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology and author of Comfort in the Ashes: Explorations in the Book of Job to Support Trauma Survivors. She also serves as director of discipleship for a church in Las Vegas, NV.
Related Resources
Comfort in the Ashes
Comfort in the Ashes is Michelle Keener's developed treatment of the same themes the series engages. The book lays out the argument at length and provides a reading guide for Christians wanting to work through the Old Testament theologically. The series and the book share the project; the book offers the developed case, and the series tests it across fourteen conversations.