The rhetorics of Wisdom's ethics
Research history of Old Testament theology indicates that it was a tortuous route and an arduous journey for scholars to arrive at the point where they could vouchsafe Wisdom its due status within Old Testament theology. The subsequent reasons are multifarious, but generally speaking, concern the in...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2002
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| In: |
Old Testament essays
Year: 2002, Volume: 15, Issue: 2, Pages: 435-452 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | Research history of Old Testament theology indicates that it was a tortuous route and an arduous journey for scholars to arrive at the point where they could vouchsafe Wisdom its due status within Old Testament theology. The subsequent reasons are multifarious, but generally speaking, concern the international character of wisdom in existence prior to the advent of the chosen people of Israel as well as the dearth of substantial testimony about revelation. This uncertainty had a detrimental effect on any potential contribution of wisdom to an understanding of Old Testament ethics. Currently, it has become the vogue to conceptualize Wisdom's role in terms of a theology of creation, but even then the mode of revelation is quite distinct from that of salvation history, prophecy and law This paper proceeds from the basis that wisdom's epistemology and ethics (knowledge and moral) are indissolubly intertwined. Consequently a description of wisdom's inquiry into the grounds of experience and knowledge should precede the definition of wisdom's ethics. It has been suggested that although wisdom justifies its truth judgment by dint of an order of creation, this order can never be equated to a perception of revelation to the exclusion of the inquiring mind and experiential knowledge. This assumption has been extended so as to encompass both the older and later wisdom tradition in Proverbs. Moreover, the argument substantiates the fact that the rhetoric of wisdom is sincere in its attempt to establish a pattern of individual and social justice, and that a relevant Old Testament theology should recognize the importance of wisdom's ethical discourse within the rhetoric of current ethics, but without claiming absolute revelation for it. |
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| ISSN: | 2312-3621 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Old Testament essays
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| Persistent identifiers: | HDL: 10520/EJC85478 |