| Ultimate care is the theme of religion. Suffering is the transport, by which thebank of love can be reached. Love in Christian style of suffering is widely studied intheology, biblical literature and western literature. The thesis attempts to interpretlove in the Book of Job from a pure linguistic perspective. In the framework ofHalliday’s interpersonal function, the thesis is intended to resolve two issues:1)to reveal the deteriorated relationships between Job and his friends in the war ofargument, initiating the exploration of Christian theme—suffering embodied in theBook of Job;2) to carry out an analysis of the dynamic relationship between Job and God so thatGod’s love can be revealed in Job’s innocent suffering.Data used for discussion are selected from the Book of Job of English StandardVersion. The analysis of interpersonal meanings encoded in the text are carried out interms of Mood, Modality and turn-taking theory under the guidance of Lizhanzi’sdouble-layer mode. In the discussion, the thesis employs qualitative and quantitativeapproaches alternatively. Major findings are made as follows:1)From the aspects of Subject, Finite, mood choices, modal operators, modal Adjunctsand turn-taking technique, the irreconcilable conflict with friends and the dynamicemotions with God are disclosed. Both of them occur in the background of traditionaldivine retribution: the good and righteous are blessed and the evil are punished.2)Through the statistics of speech turns, the status and power of Elihu and God aresalient. In the implication of Elihu and God’s utterances, the connection betweensuffering and love is set up in the clarification of the relationaships among characters,that is,‘suffering and love, misfortune and love are identical’.This is Weil’sself-empty love. Combined with Jesus’s suffering, Job’s suffering makes up the careof God and composes the whole ultimate care of love in Holy Bible. The studycontributes to the promotion of application of Halliday’s functional grammar in thestudy of Scriptures and it produces significance in literature reading throughrevelation of the religious theme. Finally, by projecting suffering into humanexistence, in reality, a positive attitude toward life is exposed. |
