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The Aesthetic of Hiddenness and Theological Significance Revealed in Job’s Language of Resistance and God’s Silence

  • Korean Journal of Old Testament Studies
  • Abbr : KJOTS
  • 2026, 32(2), pp.48~86
  • DOI : 10.24333/jkots.2026.32.2.48
  • Publisher : Korean Society of Old Testament Studies
  • Research Area : Humanities > Christian Theology
  • Received : April 17, 2026
  • Accepted : May 6, 2026
  • Published : June 30, 2026

Soon-Young Kim 1

1아신대

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study is an integration of biblical theology and modern aesthetics, examining the aesthetic tension and theological implications between Job’s language of resistance and God’s silence. Pointing out that attempts to unilaterally explain and dogmatize suffering can become an oppressive measure against the sufferer, this paper reads the Book of Job from a macroscopic, aesthetic perspective by utilizing philosopher Byung-Chul Han’s concepts of ‘the negativity of roughness’ and the ‘aesthetic of hiddenness.’ This study first identifies the retributive logic defended by Job’s friends as a ‘smooth lie’ and a form of consumer religion that eliminates the negativity of suffering. In contrast, it argues that Job’s unfamiliar language of resistance possesses an ‘aesthetic of roughness’ that shatters the falsehoods of conventional theology and reveals the truth. Amid this conflict, God’s silence acts not as the absence of the divine, but as an active rhetoric and a negativity of hiddenness that draws out Job’s chaos to the end. Furthermore, God’s theophany in the storm overwhelms Job with the sublimity and wonder of the untamable created order rather than explaining the reasons for his suffering. Job’s subsequent repentance (42:6) is not a submission to doctrine, but a voluntary and active "aesthetic correction" of one thoroughly overwhelmed by the eeriness and beauty of the universe. Ultimately, this discussion rebels against a fictitious faith that seeks only positivity without pain. God’s anger toward the friends who enforced smooth positivity and His final approval of Job, who confronted the rough truth, corroborate this. This paper argues that only when confronting abrasive disharmony and God's hiddenness can one ultimately reach the beauty of salvation and the essence of wisdom theology concealed within suffering.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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