Christian Humanist Profiles 268: Philip Thomas

May 26, 2025 01:07:16
Christian Humanist Profiles 268: Philip Thomas
Christian Humanist Profiles
Christian Humanist Profiles 268: Philip Thomas

May 26 2025 | 01:07:16

/

Hosted By

Nathan P Gilmour

Show Notes

If a tree falls by an axe, the stump will, given enough time, grow back. Human beings who fall violently have no such hope–we never rise again.  With that image, from Job 17, the book’s title character indicts the violence of the LORD and the finality of that violence.  But many centuries later, in a very different book, Philip S. Thomas enlists that image to do very different rhetorical work, and that’s what we’re here to investigate.  Dr. Thomas’s new book Hope for a Tree: Artistic Afterlives of Job examines films and poetry and literary nonfiction and other artifacts that take up Job’s lines and do other things with them.  The investigation leads to persistently interesting questions that arise from traditions whose books are holy, and Christian Humanist Profiles is glad to welcome Dr. Thomas to Christian Humanist Profiles.

Other Episodes

Episode

August 14, 2017 00:52:15
Episode Cover

Christian Humanist Profiles 112: The Triumph of Empire

David Grubbs interviews Michael Kulikowski about his recent book "The Triumph of Empire."

Listen

Episode

March 02, 2015 00:51:24
Episode Cover

Christian Humanist Profiles 28: Ice Axes for Frozen Seas

Nathan Gilmour interviews Walter Brueggemann about his 2014 book "Ice Axes for Frozen Seas."

Listen

Episode

August 22, 2016 00:59:59
Episode Cover

Christian Humanist Profiles 84: Ontic Ethics

Nathan Gilmour interviews H.G. Wright about hs recent book, "Ontic Ethics."

Listen