On Job: Reflections of an Accomplished Sinner on the Suffering of the Just

On Job: Reflections of an Accomplished Sinner on the Suffering of the Just originated as chapter by chapter reflections on the Book of Job, while the author’s father was dying in a distant state. It was written and is intended to be read as an encouragement to the medieval tradition of lectio divina—one of the regular forms of monastic prayer—which begins with the reading of the sacred text, usually aloud (the lectio), followed by meditatio—a consideration of some of the important words, images, and occurrences therein. Being a scholar himself, Dr. Fendt turned to several of the more exacting scholars to “divine” more precisely how the original language was working. This led to his here recorded meditatio (meditation) and oratio (prayer), leaving it to the reader to join with his and her own oratio and contemplatio on each of the chapters of Job. It is offered as an invitation to a very old prayer, going on under the busy-ness of the world for nearly as long as its busy-ness has been recorded.

GENE FENDT is the Albertus Magnus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Nebraska, Kearney-the very middle of the very middle of the country. It is a place conducive to long reflection. While teaching there for 35 years, he has published work on all the major philosophers (counting Augustine, Anselm, and Aquinas among them) as well as Shakespeare, Pinter, and Tom Stoppard, and has won awards for creative writing in poetry and playwrighting. His most recent previous book is Camus' Plague: Myth for our World (Notre Dame, IN: St. Augustine's Press, 2022).