I am currently plotting chapter 4 of our novel for Heide to write. This chapter has the working title of “Clovenhoof Needs People” and deals with Clovenhoof’s (aka Satan’s) being subjected to the most misery-inducing illness known to science: man-flu.
It occurred to me whilst beginning to plot this, that I could make some analogies in the story between Clovenhoof’s plight and the suffering undergone by Job in the Old Testament. Job, a pious and upstanding man from the land of Uz, suffers because Satan tells God that Job only loves him because Job leads a charmed life. What follows is essentially a wager between God and Satan in which Job’s life is made bloody miserable and the courtiers in heaven watch to see what happens.
Many years ago, I had the absolute joy of studying the Book of Job for a whole term at Sheffield University under Professor David Clines. Job is a beautiful book and is all the better for its moral complexity. However it is also a long book and could be regarded as a bit boring.
But fear not. If you are even only vaguely interested in the story of Job, you can now get the major points in a two and a half minute cartoon which is both funny (well, I laughed) and manages in three simple words to convey one of the most elegant and beautiful solutions to the Problem of Evil.
 |
| No CGI here. Just theology and laughs. |
At least Job never had to suffer a bout of man-flu.
