Useful Posts on 'Wisdom'

A blog which I think I will be visiting regularly is Tolle Lege, hosted by Dave. Not only are our respective doctoral supervisors close colleagues (mine was the first ever doctoral student of his, and they worked in the same faculty for many years and were known as the two Gordons), the topics that interest him will be important to me: Creation and Wisdom. He has series of helpful posts worth checking out: First, he gives a brief outline of various approaches to Wisdom in the modern period, pointing out the inadequacy of approaches which see the 'genre' as either essentially anthropocentric or theocentric. Second, he points out the 'ethno-centrism' of the secular/religious dichotomy which currently prevails in our culture (with a great von Rad quote), as well as the potential significance of Creation Theology for understanding Wisdom. His most recent post offers a great quote on the significance of creation, as understood by a biomedical ethicist.

I look forward to reading more!

Oh, and here's his great von Rad quote:

"The modern exegete is always tempted to read into the old texts the tension with which he is all too familiar between faith and thought, between reason and revelation. Accordingly, there has been a tendency to infer too much from the preponderance of worldly sentences over religious ones. The conclusion has, for example, been drawn that this old proverbial wisdom was still scarcely touched by Yahwism and that it was still only at the very beginning of a process of interpenetration by Yahwism. Against this, it can be categorically stated that for Israel there was only one world of experience and that this was apperceived by means of a perceptive apparatus in which rational perceptions and religious perceptions were not differentiated. Nor was this any different in the case of the prophets. The reality surrounding Israel was much more comprehensive than we would imaging, whether in political or socio-ethical or any other kind of terms." (1975, Wisdom in Israel)