Thinking Christian with Drs. James Spencer and Ashish Varma

Thinking Christian with Drs. James Spencer and Ashish Varma

James Spencer

Suffering, Faith & the Book of Job (Michelle Keener)

January 27, 2025   ●   56 min

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What does Job teach us about suffering, trauma, and faith?

In this episode of Thinking Christian, Dr. James Spencer welcomes Dr. Michelle Keener, Associate Research Fellow at the Kirby Laing Center for Public Theology and Director of Discipleship at her church in Las Vegas. Dr. Keener is the author of Comfort in the Ashes: Explorations in the Book of Job to Support Trauma Survivors, and together, they dive deep into:

Key Topics:
Why Job’s story is one of the most misunderstood books in the Bible
How trauma studies help us understand Job’s suffering
What Job’s friends got wrong—and how we often do the same
Why God’s response to Job is NOT what we expect
How churches can better support trauma survivors
Discipleship beyond conversion: What we’re missing
Balancing personal faith with Christian community

Resources & Links:

Go deeper: Trajectories

Thinking Christian is hosted by Dr. James Spencer, president of the D. L. Moody Center and author of Digital Discernment (InterVarsity Press). Each conversation reads the Bible as the final authority for life and faith, questioning the assumptions of our culture, even our Christian culture, so that we don't settle for a narrower vision than God's word offers.

Unsettling convention. Cultivating conviction.
Episodes, articles, and questions: thinkingchristian.org
About James Spencer: thinkingchristian.org/james
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