This is the first in a series of six events taking place online and in person throughout the 2022/23 academic year in honour of FYP’s 50th anniversary. Stay tuned for lectures, tutorials, debates and a book-length collection of written testimonials from FYP graduates from the program’s first 50 years. Visit Fifty Years of FYP to find out what’s coming up and to learn how you can get involved in the celebrations.
In the Book of Job, Job repeatedly says he wants to put God on trial for the horrendous and unjustified suffering Job has endured. When God responds to Job, God’s first speech includes such topics as the complexities of seasonal rainfall and the life cycles of mountain goats. Many readers have wondered, is God even attempting to respond to Job’s agonized requests for an explanation?
Join Ron Haflidson for this lecture, taking place both in person and online via livestream, to be followed by a FYP-style tutorial.
During the lecture Haflidson will guide participants to pay special attention to God’s description of the ostrich; in addition to its comparative lengthiness, it has other notable features, such as God’s insulting the ostrich’s intelligence. A close reading of this strange passage will demonstrate how God’s speech is addressing Job, albeit in an indirect way. Participants will consider how God emphasizes three qualities of the ostrich and how they might relate to Job: ostriches’ joyfulness, foolishness, and freakishness. Along the way, Haflidson will even invite the assembly to consider how the ostrich may deserve to be called “queer”. This lecture will involve numerous and wondrous facts about ostriches.
Following the lecture, the assigned reading will be discussed in breakout tutorial groups.
The assigned reading (Book of Job chapters 1-5, 27-31, 38-42) will be made available to all who RSVP.
This event will be livestreamed and there will be online tutorial groups for those attending virtually.
