Wisdom in the World

How can an ancient text, written far from a contemporary Christian in time and space, be taken up as life-transforming Scripture today? This book seeks to address that question in a study of Proverbs 8, a passage that was central to the Christological debates of the fourth century, but for many contemporary Christians seems remote and irrelevant. In the course of the study, the instincts and insights of pre-modern Christians and modern critical methods are taken up to understand the passage. Additionally, the text is placed in conversation with contemporary philosophical reflection on the nature of reading and meaning. In this latter endeavor, Charles Taylor, Paul Ricoeur, Nicholas Lash, and George Lindbeck are all drawn into engagement with the passage. Emerging from this conversation is a sense of Wisdom in the world, beckoning the Christian into a particular mode of being-in-the-world.