August 8: Dr. Tremper Longman, “The Book of Job, Suffering and the Pandemic”

Dr. Tremper Longman Professor of Old Testament Emeritus, Westmont College
The Book of Job, Suffering and the Pandemic

In the past several months we have experienced a global pandemic, bitter partisan politics, insurrectionary violence, economic insecurity for many as well as our own personal struggles. What does the book of Job teach us about suffering and how to live in the presence of God in the midst of pain? A close look at the structure of the book of Job will reveal that while we don’t get a definitive answer to why we suffer, we learn a lot about how faithful people should respond to suffering.

Tremper Longman (BA, Ohio Wesleyan; MDiv, Westminster Theological Seminary; MPhil, PhD, Yale University) is the Robert H. Gundry Professor of Biblical Studies emeritus at Westmont College, Santa Barbara, CA. Prior to joining Westmont in 1998, he at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. He is an adjunct professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, also Visiting Professor of Old Testament at the Seattle School of Theology & Psychology as well as Ambrose University Seminary (Calgary). He has written over thirty books, including several biblical commentaries, as well as Science, Creation and the Bible: Reconciling Rival Theories of Origins with physicist Richard F. Carlson. He is an editor and contributor to the Zondervan Dictionary of Christianity and Science. With John Walton he wrote, The Lost World of the Flood.

Tremper was with us last summer, speaking on the topic of a recent book, The Bible and the Ballot. Prior to that in October 2019 he was one of the speakers for our conference with the Biologos Foundation, dealing with the question “can you trust the Bible in a scientific age?” There is a video recording of that conference, including Dr. Longman’s perspective on the relationship between creation and evolution.

He has recently completed a commentary on The Book of Revelation.