In the biography of his father B F Westcott, the Bishop's son recalls the great NT scholar arguing that he would rather assess a student by their ability to set a first class exam paper than to sit one! Westcott believed the ability to identify the significant questions demonstrated a more thorough knowledge of a subject than the ability to mug up satisfactory answers.
Like much else, the motivation behind a question reveals something characteristically human – curiosity needn't be mere – curiosity can have the urgency of life and death, or be driven by an inner imperative to know in order to understand. Or the question asked may have an answer that is necessary in order to know what the next question might be, in that endless sequence of exploration that underlies all education – including theological education. And the book of Job is a profoundly disturbing course in theological education – if having the truth of God drawn out of us by having our very humanity questioned, counts as theological education.
Balentine's commentary on Job is written into that deeply human activity of questioning and being questioned. For those who desire a faith bolted down in certainties and unambiguous answers, 'the gain of certainty has to be measured against the loss of debate'. But for those for whom life is riddled with ambiguity, and faith and trust are tested by extremes of loss and pain, the loss of debate imposes a n unacceptable and dehumanising silencing of that voice through which the question "Why" is and must be spoken. The question "Why" searches the soul, and confronts God in both protest and prayer, both curse and blessing, seeking meaning more than consolation, and articulating in question and argument that which defines a person's humanity – the capacity to suffer, the yearning for love, and the longing to understand.
When it comes to suffering "for no reason," this book seems intent on reminding us that questions about the world, human existence and God necessarily remain open ended. To settle for anything less is to deny the pain that punctuates every faith assertion with a question mark. (Balentine, 33)
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