Tobias Häner
Born in Switzerland in 1978, I did my Bachelor and Master studies in Theology at the University of Lucerne and at the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem. After three years of pastoral work, I continued my Biblical studies at the University of Augsburg and completed my doctoral thesis on the book of Ezekiel in 2013 (published in 2014). In April 2023, I have been appointet as professor for the indroduction and exegesis of the Old Testament and dialogue with the cultures of the Near East at the Cologne University of Catholic Theologiy (KHKT). My research project (habilitation) on ambiguity and irony in the Book of Job at the Department of Biblical Studies of the University of Vienna, concluded in 2022, has been published in August 2024 (FAT 179. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck).
Address: KHKT, 50935 Köln (Germany)
Address: KHKT, 50935 Köln (Germany)
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Taking up a recent trend in studies on the book of Job, Tobias Häner centers his work on irony and ambiguity in the text to show that both rhetorical features appear throughout the book and point to the finiteness of human cognitive faculty.
The following volume: (1) reevaluates scholarly definitions of irony and the use of the term in biblical research; (2) builds on existing methods of interpretation of ironic texts; (3) offers judicious analyses of methodological approaches to irony in the Bible; and (4) develops fresh insights into biblical passages.
«Truly, with you wisdom will die» (Job 12:2)
Irony und Ambiguity in den Books of Ecclesiastes und Job
from Thursday, March 19, 2020, 09.00 am to Friday, March 20, 12.00 am
Meeting Room of the Deanery of the Faculty of Catholic Theology, University of Vienna
In my paper, I want to reconsider the relation between the Joban Prologue (Job 1–2) and the Torah, focusing on the connections to Genesis 22 and Deuteronomy 28. As I will argue, the rhetorical functions of the links to these texts in the Joban narrative can be accurately described with the terms of irony and ambiguity. In fact, Job 1–2 does not simply negate the theological premises that underlie Gen 22 and Deut 28, but by the use ironical allusions and ambiguous references both affirms and questions them. In this way, as I will try to show, the prologue of the book of Job opens up a sophisticated discourse with two theologically relevant texts of Torah.