'Thou art changed to be cruel toward me’ [Job 30.21]: John of the Cross on Job

This chapter argues that new insight can be gained into John’s thinking on the desolation of desire through a consideration of his engagement with the figure of Job across his corpus. By contrasting John’s treatment of Job with that in Gregory the Great’s Moralia in Iob, the chapter aims to highlight ways in which John offers Job to his readers as a spiritual companion, who is at the same time a figure of empathy. Through a reader’s empathetic engagement with Job, John draws the reader out of him/herself while also drawing attention to the continued importance of human feelings in spiritual ascent, even in the highest stage of mystical union – deification.