"O That My Words Were Written Down!": Contested Bodies and Unwelcome Words in the Book of Job and Modern Poetry of Disability
Contributing to modern theology's attention to diverse embodiments and particular histories, this paper brings the poetry of the book of Job into dialogue with new voices: modern poets of disability, especially women. Traditional theological reflections on suffering and disability often turn to...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Cambridge Univ. Press
2022
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| In: |
Horizons
Year: 2022, Volume: 49, Issue: 2, Pages: 277-304 |
| IxTheo Classification: | CD Christianity and Culture FD Contextual theology HB Old Testament NBE Anthropology NCC Social ethics |
| Further subjects: | B
Disability
B Occupation B Poetry B Suffering B Embodiment B Identity B Body B Trauma |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Contributing to modern theology's attention to diverse embodiments and particular histories, this paper brings the poetry of the book of Job into dialogue with new voices: modern poets of disability, especially women. Traditional theological reflections on suffering and disability often turn to Job, although Job's words and the text itself resist easy conclusions. Modern poets of disability reveal surprising similarities with Job, as both seek to reject the meaning others ascribe to their bodies. Comparing the poets of disability to Job reveals how disabling change to the body is experienced as exile and as a new experience requiring new language. The unchanged, able-bodied audience rejects the new insights of the poet, exposing the conflicts between the interpretations that communities privilege and those they exclude. Elements of a constructive theology of disability are found in the way poets of disability creatively reconfigure the changing relationships among body, words, community, and God. |
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| ISSN: | 2050-8557 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Horizons
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/hor.2022.50 |