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The Book of Job
[[Zizek ]] states that the Book of Job is perhaps the first example of a modern critique or [[ideology]].
Job is a devout man and a [[model ]] [[citizen ]] who is suddenly struck with calamities.He is then visited by, one after the [[other]], [[three ]] theologically educated friends.These friends [[represent ]] ideology at its purest.Each of [[them ]] tries ti [[symbolize]], to give some [[meaning ]] to, his [[suffering ]] – God may be punishing you (even if you are unaware of your sin), God may be testing you and so on.
The usual [[perception ]] of Job is of a [[patient ]] man who simpy endures his woes with dignity and remains faithful to God.But Job is not this quiet man who takes everything; he complains all the [[time]].
Job simply does not accept that his suffering has any meaning; he wants to assert the meaninglessness of his suffering.
He doesn’t buy the [[idea ]] that any divine plan can justify his suffering.And then, at the end, when God appears, He says the three friends were totally wrong and that everything Job said was [[right]].And the [[moment ]] you accept suffering as something that doesn’t have a deeper meaning, it means we can [[change ]] it; fight against it.
This is the zero level of the critique of ideology – when you don’t read meaning into it.
When God appears for the [[first time ]] in Job, it’s a bit like a Hollywood [[spectacle]], where He goes on to declare that He can create monsters with seven heads and so on.But all His boasting and declrations of [[power ]] are actually an attempt to mask the opposite; what God demonstrates is His defeat.In this [[sense]], Job’s suffering points towards the suffering of [[Christ]].
We [[pass ]] from [[Judaism ]] to [[Christianity ]] when this infinite [[split ]] between Man and God – the point where Man simply cannot find meaning in his suffering – is transposed into God himself.This is how one should read Christ’s desperate cry of “Father“[[Father]], why have you forsaken me?”This should be read in [[terms ]] of a child’s expectations vis-à-vis a father who cannot [[help]].The reproach is against the Father’s [[impotence]].
God is not omnipotent and in this sense Christ represents both the impotence of God and the meaninglessness of his own suffering.
[[Theology ]] can contribute to contemporary radicalism.This is a crucial aspect of the [[religious ]] legacy which Zizek argues applies to contemporary [[globalization]].Today’s preachers of globalization are like the three theologian friends of Job, who argue that [[people ]] are suffering but that this is just a vital part of restructuring, a temporary problem in the great scheme of things and that soon [[life ]] will be better.No, we should adopt a Job [[position ]] and not accept any [[necessity ]] or fatalism.
