Character in Crisis: A Fresh Approach to the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament

Front Cover
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, Feb 29, 1996 - Religion - 179 pages
At a time when the chasm between academic scholarship and theological reflection seems to be widening, both the academic guild and the church share in common an uncertainty over how to study and appropriate the wisdom literature of the Old Testament. On the one hand, mainline denominations have for the most part avoided the books of Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes in their preaching and educational curriculum. Biblical scholars, on the other hand, have labored hard to identify the theological significance and thematic center of the wisdom literature, but without much consensus. In Character in Crisis, William P. Brown helps to break the impasse by demonstrating that the aim of the Bible's wisdom literature is the formation of moral character - both for individuals and for the community. Brown traces the theme of moral identity and conduct throughout the wisdom literature of the Old Testament, with a concluding reflection on the Epistle of James in the New Testament, and explores a range of issues that includes literary characterization, moral discourse, worldview, and the theology of the ancient sages. He examines the ways in which central characters such as God, wisdom, and human beings are profiled in the wisdom books and shows how their characterizations impart ethical meaning to the reading community, both ancient and modern.
 

Contents

Introduction The Ethics and Ethos of Biblical Wisdom
1
Descriptive Character
4
Prescriptive or Moral Character
6
Literary and Moral
16
Narrative and Character
17
Character and Wisdom Literature
19
The Formation of Character in Proverbs or Virtue and the Art of Community Maintenance
22
17
23
Yahwehs Discourse
89
Job Restored
111
The Ecology of Character
115
Character Reconstructed Ecclesiastes
120
The Shaking of the Foundations
123
Wisdom Recharacterized
126
The Absurd
129
Character Reconstructed
134

The Ethos of Instruction
30
The Profile of Virtue in Parental Discourse
33
From Character to Creation
36
Proverbs 9712
41
Prolegomena Revisited
42
Beyond Proverbs 19 Virtues for a Dissolute Age
43
The Deformation of Character Job 131
50
The Profile of Integrity 11213
51
Integrity Reprofiled
60
The Reformation of Character Job 3242
83
The Untamed Wise Youth
84
Conclusion
148
Conclusion The Journey of Character
151
The Self Moving Outward
152
The Self Returning
154
What Is Gained in the Journey
155
A Synthesis of Character?
157
Wisdom for the Church
160
Works Cited
165
Index of Authors
177
Copyright

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