Customer Reviews

The Trial of Job: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Job

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The Book of Job is fruitful to read without a guide, but if you want to "dine on it," you must have a trusted guide. I have read Fr. Reardon's other books as well as his reflections in Touchstone Magazine and I know him to be a trusted guide. As an Orthodox Christian I chose this book to read during Great Lent. As an Orthodox Christian priest, I recommend others to do so as well. This book is very good in providing a key to understanding Job's defenses, arguments and rebuttals, as well as those of his three so-called "Comforters." I particularly found the chapters where "the wrath of Elihu" puts Job on the right track. Fr. Reardon's reflections on these chapters I found particularly edifying. To paraphrase Fr. Reardons reading of on of Elihus's counsels, "no one, not even Job, is beyond improvement." Like Job, we need to and can learn from our suffering and the suffering of others to "love God for God's sake." "Behold God is mighty, but despises no one; He is mighty in strength of understanding."
Like true Orthodox Christian catechetical writings, this book is written by a real person to real people. This book is best specifically because it is NOT a scholarly work. It is a good book for people who care about the salvation of their souls.

Put simply, this book has an excellent chapter by chapter analysis of Job. It is, perhaps, more useful for the preacher than the scholar, but could certainly prove beneficial for both. Before reading this, I was very familiar with the book of Job, but if you haven't read Job yet, I would recommend reading it alongside of this. Don't bother trying to get a grasp of Job on your own. As Reardon's commentary will point out, Job's very purpose is to be beyond any simple meaning. It may, then, help to read, say, chapter one of Job, then Reardon's commentary on it- and so on. But, again, this is a very insightful little book.

But moving on to some clarifications: first of all, amazon advertises this as a 214pg book. The copy I purchased, which has the same copyright date and publisher, is only 107 pgs. This shows that it will not, nor could not, be a tremendously in-depth look at the book of Job because it simply could not be done in so little space. So, once again, it may be more helpful for the preacher than the scholar. Now, my second complaint: the title is deceptive. "Orthodox Reflections" is misleading because, as a student of eastern Christianity, I find nothing particularly "orthodox" about it. It is simply a commentary on Job, done by an orthodox priest - a good one, at that, but nothing that makes it come off as Byzantine, for example, as opposed to Roman or Protestant reflections on the book.

But, to conclude, this is a very good, insightful book and is well worth the money.

This is not a commentary, but of course it isn't really supposed to be a technical work. It is short and succinct with about two smallish pages of material for each chapter. But, as always, Fr. Reardon's writing is densly packed with more insight than most articles of the same length. All in all, this makes a nice devotional reading or group study material source.