No text in history has been subject to as much discussion as The Book of Job. The problems it raises affect believers and atheists alike, and can be viewed as the place where philosophical questioning begins. Why is the world so constructed that righteous people may suffer while wicked people flourish? How do we live in such a world without succumbing to despair? This conference will not aim to solve such questions. Rather, it will illuminate aspects of Job from philosophical, literary, and artistic perspectives as well as from all major world religions, and show why the book remains as alive today as it was millennia ago.

Concept: Susan Neiman, Potsdam
Participants: Jan Assmann, Heidelberg; Gerhard Begrich, Berlin; Amber Carpenter, York; Michael Ebstein, Jerusalem; Konstanty Gebert, Warschau; Stephen Holmes, New York; Eva Illouz, Jerusalem; Glenn Most, Pisa; James Ponet, New Haven, Conn.; Jan Philipp Reemtsma, Hamburg; Choon-Leong Seow, Princeton; David Shulman, Jerusalem; Emilie Townes, New Haven, Conn.; James Wood, Cambridge, Mass.