Week 5, Cobb, Chapter 5

I thought the idea of what we learn from "God fiction" both in film and literature was quite interesting. The parallel that I found particularly relevant was using the social and historical context of the time in which the Book of Job was written.

Cobb writes, "Job was probably written late in the biblical period of ancient Israel, when Judaism had suffered the humiliation of exile at the hands of pagan nations, and at a time when its theological beliefs were in flux. The experience of exile had required a revamping of much of the Jewish understanding of God. We too live in a time of change in which we have lost many of our inherited theological certainties" (Cobb, p. 157 ).

I never really thought about the connections between the context of Job and the way we can come to understand various presentations of God in "God fiction". I think that as we move into a period that becomes more religiously diverse and pluralistic it's important to look to film and literature and culture to try and get a read of where we're at as a culture and what the ideas and questions are that the church needs to address.