从麦克利什的《J.B.》看《约伯记》中的苦难

The Suffering of Job Observed in Archibald MacLeish's J.B.

美国著名作家阿奇博尔德·麦克利什的诗剧《J.B.》取材于《约伯记》,将冷战时期人们对战争的恐惧和人生的绝望放置到经典的圣经叙事之中,利用宗教传统去承载宏大的写作意图.作品以诗性方式展现并解答了《约伯记》中苦难这一核心问题,彰显出在现代性社会语境下,人类生存危机的出路势必呈现为一种落脚于人性的超验性诉求.麦克利什通过颠覆性的笑与神域之外的爱这两个维度去消解传统基督教中上帝的中心与权威,而剧中上帝本身的缺席或不确定在场抹去了《约伯记》中人神之间张力的一极,使神域之外的人性之爱得以注入信仰的论域.

A retelling of the book of Job,the play J.B.by American author Archibald MacLeish sets the fear of war and sense of hopelessness that people felt during the Cold War within the frame of this classic biblical narrative,letting religious traditions bear the weight of a grand narrative.The work uses a poetic form to demonstrate and respond to the key theme of suffering in Job,and reveals that the solution to the crisis of human existence in modern society lies in transcendental pursuits.The author removes the centrality and power of the traditional Christian God through two dimensions:subversive laughter,and human love beyond the divine realm.The absence or ambiguous presence of God in the play eliminates God’s part in the tensioned human-divine relationship,so that human love outside the divine realm finds its place in the religious field.