Joban Prayers: A Maximian Contemplation of the Cosmic Job – Christ

All mysteries, all of creation, all of history, and all of Scripture arc inward to the center of the cosmos: the God-man, Christ. The Incarnation is a mystery of superlative proportions in accordance with God’s will to heal micro and macrocosmic entropy for the purpose of divine-human communion. Furthermore, Ephesians 1 explains that Jesus of Nazareth is a historical figure that discloses the enigma of the universe, not in some gnostic datum, but in terms of fulfillment, redemption, and recapitulation. Yet, do we dare venture to say that this enigmatic figure discloses the mystery of the ‘pagan’ experience in human history? [1] In other words, does the Incarnate Jesus reveal anything in regards to the mystery of the human person who does not ‘know’ Jesus. The person who embodies a life full of love and suffering, spanning from adolescence to adulthood, experiencing the full emotional spectrum and capable of rational thought, participating in the search for meaning … and yet does not cognitively choose to ‘belong’ to ‘the Way.’ [2] This paper endeavors to interpret the Book of Job as a prophetic text which outlines the possibility of redemption among “pagans,” and therefore advocate an inclusivist interpretation of salvation. This project will synthesize St. Maximus the Confessor’s Christology and cosmology with the Book of Job to prove that Creation and Incarnation are a unified act of God to save humanity.

Before moving forward, the limitations of this paper should be noted. No effort to outline or advocate apokatastasis lies here within. Though, this thesis can certainly be applied to the ever growing discussion; yet, this study has not discovered anything explicit or definitive on the topic of salvation for all. Whether one may identify this as pusillanimous or standing on pretense of false modesty, the project wishes not to venture into mysteries that are unspoken in the Scriptural Tradition. That said, we will turn to an unlikely patristic figure for support in interpreting the Joban myth: St. Maximus the Confessor. He is an unlikely counselor on the topic as he did not have extensive writing addressing Job in comparison to other Church Fathers; however, the Confessor’s writings provide a thoroughly orthodox and imaginative system to interpret Job as more than a ‘mere’ theodicy. [3]

St. Maximus the Confessor’s Chalcedonian and mystagogic thinking illuminates the existence of the Morning Star using the ‘two books’ of revelation – creation and Scripture – to disclose the mystery of the Incarnate Logos. Within both ‘books’ there are apparent realities and truths that have mysteries beyond them – a mystagogical meaning that radiates inward to the Logos. As Maximus states in his First Century on Theology: 

“The mystery of the Incarnation of the Logos is the key to all the arcane symbolism and typology in the Scriptures, and in addition gives us knowledge of created things, both visible and intelligible. He who apprehends the mystery of the cross and the burial apprehends the inward essences of created things; while he who is initiated into the inexpressible power of the resurrection apprehends the purpose for which God first established everything.” [4]

Maximus maintains that the incarnate Christ is the ‘key’ to understand the entirety of the Cosmos and Scripture – including Job. The theological principles integral to this interpretation are that of Maximus’ Chalcedonian Christology and Mystagogy, which serve as hermeneutic lenses to see the logoi reveal the Logos within our reading of Job. This examination will follow a threefold method. First, we will outline Maximus’ systematic theology drawing on his Chalcedonianism and Mystagogy as an epistemic foundation. [5] Secondly, we will examine the relationship between Maximus’ theology of logoi and Transfiguration to bridge the message of Job’s hope. Thirdly, we will acknowledge the Joban question and find the answer to the mystery of Job in Maximus’ Christic cosmology. Considering that Maximus offers little direct reflection on the book of Job, we will synthesize Maximus’ Christology with a contemporary work, Gregory the Great’s Moralia in Job. [6] This integrative reading will reveal that the Old Testament prophet is more than a theodicy, but a sacrament of the Incarnation, and it will present Job’s pagan ‘foreknowledge’ of the cosmic mystery. [7] St. Maximus the Confessor’s writings contain recurrent themes that cycle like tidal waves in the heart and mind of one standing on the shores of the cosmos, meditating on the mystery of God’s love. Maximus’ ascending and circular logic constructs a doctrine of the Incarnation as sacramental revelation of ontic, cosmic, and historic character. Therefore, the Incarnation elucidates the greatest of mysteries of Scripture and nature: including the pagan experience typified in Job. As we move into our examination, “Let us contemplate with faith the mystery of the divine Incarnation and in all simplicity let us simply praise Him who in His great generosity became man for us. For who, relying on the power of rational demonstration, can explain how the conception of the divine Logos took place?” [8]

1. “Pagan” is applied literally here as a ‘rural outsider’ so as to encompass a broad application. This will be the preferred term to ‘Gentile’ or any other identifier for those that are otherwise externally identified as “outside the community of the saved” or not sharing belief in the Judeo-Christian God.

2. Luke’s description of the early Christian sect from Judaism; Acts 9:2; 18:26; 19:9,23; 22:4; 24:14,22.

3. St. Augustine’s Annotations on Job, Jerome’s Preface on Job, St. John of Chrysostom’s Commentary on the Sages, vol. 1: Commentary on Job, Evagrius Ponticus’ Notes on Job, Didymus the Blind’s Commentary on Job, or  St. Ambrose’s The Prayer of Job and David. 

4. Theologia 1.66 , in The Philokalia, Vol II (New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1981). Maximus’ works will be referenced in abbreviation (i.e. Theologia) and listing the century and number in subsequent footnotes. My italics added.

5. This will be a constructed system as Louth, 21 notes that Maximus’ reflections are not a ‘tidy’ system but a compilation of letters and scholia that are interpreting an inherited tradition.

6. Maximus’ references to Job are brief and are usually limited to “the sufferings of Job” attributed to God’s “permissive will.”: Questionnes et Dubia 83; Amb 11; ad Thal 26.10, Various Texts 1.80-83

7. Foreknowledge should not be interpreted anachronistically, but as a messianic prophecy.

8. Various Texts 1.13 in The Philokalia, Vol II (New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1981).