Inscrutable Malice: Theodicy, Eschatology, and the Biblical Sources of "Moby-Dick"

by Jonathan A. Cook

In Inscrutable Malice , Jonathan A. Cook expertly illuminates Melville's abiding preoccupation with the problem of evil and the dominant role of the Bible in shaping his best-known novel. Drawing on recent research in the fields of biblical studies, the history of religion, and comparative mythology, Cook provides a new interpretation of Moby-Dick that places Melville's creative adaptation of the Bible at the center of the work. Cook identifies two ongoing concerns in the narrative in relation to their key biblical the attempt to reconcile the goodness of God with the existence of evil, as dramatized in the book of Job; and the discourse of the Christian end-times involving the final destruction of evil, as found in the apocalyptic books and eschatological passages of the Old and New Testaments. With his detailed reading of Moby-Dick in relation to its most important source text, Cook greatly expands the reader's understanding of the moral, religious, and mythical dimensions of the novel.  Both accessible and erudite, Inscrutable Malice will appeal to scholars, students, and enthusiasts of Melville's classic whaling narrative.

358 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2012

About the author

There are multiple authors called Jonathan Cook. See Jonathan Cook, Jonathan Cook, Jonathan Cook, Jonathan Cook, Jonathan M. Cook, Jonathan Chase Cook, Jonathan C. Cook.

Reviews

[Searnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

This work charted a course through a constellation of biblical references that ultimately allowed one to enjoy the language as well as the dense weave of 'Moby Dick's' religious and philosophical themes.

[Jeremy Neufeld · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally a critic who gets that Melville is centrally interested in theology, God, and suffering—way more than gender, race, or politics

Nice complement to Hubert Dreyfus’s lectures on Moby-Dick on YouTube