Wounded Hero on a Shaman's Quest - A look at the parable of JOB

Response Paper: Wounded Hero on a Shaman’s Quest 

“Why does God’s “answer” to Job seem to be so little to the point? It is not only the behavior of Yahweh that is puzzling, but that of the hero and his comforters as well...  Why do the friends give such poor comfort, if that is indeed their aim?” (Wounded Healer on a Shaman’s Quest, Carole R. Fontaine, p.71)

            These questions have posed as the riddle of the book of Job for myself, and for my past teachers. Job’s tale seems to be of a good man, whom God sets Satan upon to torture, all so that God can prove to Satan that Job is in deed, word, and spirit a righteous man. In the past my theology has been that the book of Job was God’s answer to the human question, “How can a good God allow for evil to afflict those He loves?” This theology led to two different conclusions: God’s good is beyond our understanding, and that humanity does not have the right to question its God on the happenings of life. We, the created, do not have it within our capacity or right to pose such a question to our God. With this line of thinking Job’s friends come into the picture as a temptation from Satan, luring Job away from his righteous suffering, and admitting the wrong that he has done to warrant such treatment by God. The book of Job thus became one of my least favorite books, and I avoided it in teaching, preaching, and discussion. Job’s afflictions were so profound and varied that most people have experienced some, if not most, of his troubles by mid life. The only response that I could ever accept was that God’s nature was so vastly different from our own that we should think of it with fear, and awe. In such a theology the message of Job is to humble oneself in the sight of the Lord.

'Healing Rain' Painting by Chris Mundy

            What if the questioning of the problem of pain is not the nature of the book of Job? With the essay “Wounded Hero on a Shaman’s Quest” a new key to this book has been given, one more applicable and less esoteric. When we look at the book of Job as a folk tale that tells the story of a good man that has a series of terrible events occur to him. We see that even a good man can break, be traumatized, have an existential crisis, and heal, not in spite of the tragedies that have transpired, but in recognition of the pain that the hero has endured. Job learned how to stand righteously in the midst of pain, and then to continue on his spiritual pilgrimage with a greater understanding of himself, the people around him, and a world that does not distinguish between calamities visited upon the ‘righteous’ or the ‘sinner’.

Fairy tales are unreal, but they are not untrue; they reflect essential developments and conditions of man’s existence… One feels that fairy tales are concerned with portraying essential processes in life. Testing, threatening danger, destruction – and salvation, development, and maturation—are portrayed before our mind’s eye in images which are unreal, but for that reason fascinating.” p.73

            Viewing the book of Job as what Max Luthi refers to as fairy tale helps me to have a greater appreciation for the book of Job. In prior trainings I was taught that Job was a literal tale. In a literal portrayal of Job it was difficult to see him as a ‘righteous’ man, he seemed to me more than a tad self important, and struck me as the type that would be first to stand up in church with a prayer request for someone else rather than themselves. Job’s wife and his friends were portrayed as Satan’s helpers that tempt him to ‘curse God and die’ and the wife and friends that accompany Job at the end of the book were seen as different people in Job’s life that were equally righteous. This style of interpretation did not view the humanity, and the transformation that trauma whether personal or vicarious can have on a person.

            In looking at this tale as a folk tale while keeping in mind the setting, and equal humanity of Job’s wife, friends, and slaves it becomes a tale of the suffering of everyone. Each character in the story has an untold tale of their own of suffering.  The wife has lost her children, her husband his vocation, and brought home a disease that would render her unclean, and estranged from her community, yet it is not seen in the text any attempt of this righteous man to console his wife for her equal if not greater loss. Job’s friends who seem so villainous in their discouragement of a suffering man are equally made human, they see their friend who has lost so much, yet still has much that he can still hold onto, and rebuild with… Even though it is not within the text one can imagine the friends coming by and visiting Job to comfort him after each loss, his tragedy has been theirs; they have spent all their patience, energy, and sympathy for Job as he laments over his own woes and life. Yet in this tale there is an absence of Job ever having asked his friends how they were doing, perhaps the calamities that Job has experienced including the illness, loss of vocation, and death in the family had been visited upon the friends in some manner and time of their lives that was equal or greater than his own. In this tale we see a righteous man who losses much, he thinks of himself as being right with God, and associates his trauma as unfair treatment by his Lord. He has not wronged the Lord, so why has his God wronged him, is the question that is presented in the story.

            In looking at this story as a folk tale, I am reminded of the story by C.S. Lewis, Pilgrim’s Regress, in which a pilgrim sets out on his voyage of life, and in his naivety see’s that which is around him as being torturous, or set against him. As the pilgrim reaches his desired destiny he is reminded of his humanity, granted empathy, and so retraces his pilgrimage and sees that which stood against him as being agents that aided him in a personal transformation. So has Job experienced a pilgrimage, one of suffering, that has been transformative and helped him to see his self, and the world around him with a different perspective. It is then possible that it is not the friends and wife that seeming change so drastically from the start to the finish of the story, but Job himself that has been transfigured through suffering. His transfiguration has not made him superior or more righteous, it has made him more aware of what every one experiences in this life, for good or ill. Even the animals that the Lord lists to Job become a lesson for Job.

The perplexing parade of creatures in Yahweh’s answer to Job in 38:39-41:34 is not so out of place or irrelevant as is often assumed by commentators… They are there to convey information to Job that will help him complete his quest for meaning. Living illustrations of the mystery of creation, these animal helpers allow Job to place the suffering of human beings in a less parochial, more cosmic perspective.

            Using the folk tale interpretation method the story of Job becomes less irrelevant, and a tale told by a people that experienced trauma on a regular basis to comfort them. Job becomes relatable in his unmerited loss to the losses that every person eventually faces. If we are to see that Job’s journey is one of a folk tale “Shaman” instead of an arrogant man being made humble before a vast and unfathomable God, this tale is one of healing from trauma in a heroic fashion. The suffering of Job can be seen as his opportunity to rise to a greater level of awareness and social integration. The sufferer can become a healer; anyone can rise from the exile of illness and assist in the healing of others (p.81).

A shaman brings healing through symbolic activity that invoke imagery and emotions that trigger the limbic system which in turn has an effect on the autonomic nervous system, hypothalamus, and pituitary gland. This activation directly stimulates the immunological systems of the body (p.81). The story of Job acts in shaman form by invoking the images of nature, the height of creation and inspiring us, the audience, that even when the world that we have built, crumbles around us through illness and calamity, there is a world of wonder that is full of glory, wonder, and the ever healing Spirit of Life Itself.

            This interpretation of the book of Job has impacted me in a shaman fashion by reminding me to acknowledge, and then rise from the ashes of emotional and physical trauma by embracing that which I love the most. The play of a Papillion puppy, the embrace of my partner, outrageously stupid sci fi flicks that make me smile in their absurdity.  To grow through my personal pain while holding open hands to others aiding in the ever growing human bridge that spans the gulf of grief.