Wisdoms Wonder : Character Creation And Crisis In The Bibles Wisdom Literat

Explores the biblical wisdom books anew through the interpretive lens of wonder

Wisdom’s Wonder offers a fresh reading of the Hebrew Bible’s wisdom literature with a unique emphasis on “wonder” as the framework for understanding biblical wisdom. William Brown argues that wonder effectively integrates biblical wisdom’s emphasis on character formation and its outlook on creation, effectively breaking an impasse that has plagued recent wisdom studies.Drawing from various disciplines — from philosophy to neuroscience — Brown discovers new distinctions and connections among Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes. Central to each book, he claims, are certain “texts of tremendum,” which evoke the wide range of wonder’s nuance, from “fear seeking understanding” to confounding perplexity to unbridled joy.

An extensive revision and expansion of Brown’s Character in Crisis (Eerdmans, 1996), this book demonstrates that the wisdom books are much more than simply advice literature — with wonder as the foundation for understanding, Brown maintains that wisdom is a process with transformation of the self as the goal.