"I read the book of Job last night, I don't think God comes out well in it"
- Virginia Woolf
About this Quote
The quote "I read the book of Task last night, I do not think God comes out well in it," attributed to Virginia Woolf, is a striking commentary on the theological and philosophical concerns raised by the Book of Task in the Bible. Woolf, understood for her eager insights into humanity and her important perspective on presence, provides an important view that invites readers to check out the complexities of magnificent justice and human suffering.
The Book of Job is a part of the Old Testament that deals with extensive concerns of why bad things happen to excellent individuals. Job, a righteous male, suffers enormous losses and extreme physical ailments, triggering a series of dialogues with his friends and eventually with God. The narrative difficulties conventional understandings of retributive justice-- the idea that great is rewarded and wicked is penalized-- which is deeply ingrained in many spiritual mentors.
Woolf's assertion that "God does not come out well" in the book recommends a critique of the portrayal of God as seemingly indifferent to human suffering or as enabling suffering as a test of faith. This point of view lines up with the existential issues prevalent in Woolf's era and her own writings, where she often explores themes of existential unpredictability, the nature of truth, and the struggles of human awareness.
By making this comment, Woolf may be concentrating on the apparently arbitrary and abstruse nature of God's actions (or absence of actions) in the story. Instead of supplying clear responses or assurances about the moral order of the universe, the Book of Job provides a God whose factors for enabling suffering stay mysterious and whose justice appears beyond human understanding.
Therefore, Woolf's remark can be seen as a prompt for much deeper reflection on the nature of magnificent justice and the human condition. It raises questions about the reconciliation of faith with the extreme truths of life and motivates a vital assessment of the ways in which religious stories handle the omnipresence of suffering. In Woolf's hands, such biblical review becomes a broader exploration of the dispute in between the divine and human understanding, a style that resonates with a lot of her literary works.
"How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?"