Outline of Arguments about Theodicy in the Book of Job

The arguments of the accuser

• Heavenly district attorney (enemy of God later)
• Is there such a thing as disinterested piety?
• Should the righteous be rewarded?

The arguments of Job’s friends

• Suffering is punishment
• Suffering is pedagogic
• Common good

Job’s arguments

• Experience refutes tradition
• Experience refutes arguments from fittingness
• God does not need us to lie to make God look good
• Judicial theory: Can a tyrant be called just?
• Judicial theory: What are the rights of the accused?
• One should still be righteous for its own sake, even though no discernible reward

God’s arguments

• Can humans reasonably expect to gain wisdom?
• Can humans reasonably expect to understand God’s justice?
• Does God claim to be just? Is God constrained by the human construct of justice?
• What is the place of humans in the cosmos?

Epilogue

• Fairy tale hypothetical exercise
• Was the suffering of the innocent an aberration all along?