The Book Of Wisdom In Modern Research

The Book of Wisdom is regarded as a precious document of the Alexandrian Jewish diaspora. During the 20th century, a considerable number of studies has beendedicated to the Alexandrian culture. This research requires a review of its a oeenjeux mA(c)thodologiquesa and a more ample and complete a oehistorical approacha seems to be necessary in order to comprehend to which extent the author might have been influenced by his social background. This study presents a comparison between scholars from different areas and with diverse approaches. It paves the way for a thematic assessment of the historical and theological aspects of the Book of Wisdom in order to research its structural unity, its particular historical value and the specific, not granted, theological importance.

The papers in this volume focus on various aspects of the deuterocanonical Book of Wisdom. They research the traditions and theology of the Book of Wisdom, and demonstrate its relationship with the contemporary literature of early Judaism and Middle Platonic thought.

A critical revaluation of ancient spiritual systems long ignored or rejected because of their assumed incompatibility with science. Here are Swami Muktananda on the mind, Swami Prajnananda on Karma, Swami Kripananda on the Kundalini, Joseph Chilton Pearce on spiritual development, Jack Kornfield on Buddhism for Americans, Claudio Naranjo on meditation, and much more.

Wisdom in Classical and Biblical Tradition begins with the recognition that modern culture emerged from a synthesis of the legacies of ancient Greek civilization and the theological perspectives of the Jewish and Christian scriptures. Part of what made this synthesis possible was a shared outlook: a common aspiration toward wholeness of understanding that refused to separate knowledge from goodness, virtue from happiness, cosmos from polis, and divine authority from human responsibility. This wholeness of understanding, or wisdom, featured prominently in both classical and biblical literatures as an ultimate good. Michael Legaspi has two central aims. The first is to explain in formal terms what wisdom is. Though wisdom involves matters of practical judgment affecting the life of the individual and the community, it has also been identified with an understanding of the world and of the ultimate realities that give meaning to human thought and action. In its traditional form, wisdom was understood to govern intellectual, social, and ethical endeavors. His second aim is to analyze figures and texts that have yielded and shaped the traditional understanding of wisdom. The book examines accounts of wisdom within foundational texts that range from the period of Homer to the destruction of the Second Temple. In doing so, it explains why the search for wisdom remains an important but problematic endeavor today.

The series Beihefte zur Zeitschrift f r die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZAW) covers all areas of research into the Old Testament, focusing on the Hebrew Bible, its early and later forms in Ancient Judaism, as well as its branching into many neighboring cultures of the Ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman world.

Alan Watts introduced millions of Western readers to Zen and other Eastern philosophies. But he is also recognized as a brilliant commentator on Judeo-Christian traditions, as well as a celebrity philosopher who exemplified the ideas — and lifestyle — of the 1960s counterculture. In this compilation of controversial lectures that Watts delivered at American universities throughout the sixties, he challenges readers to reevaluate Western culture's most hallowed constructs. Watts treads the familiar ground of interpreting Eastern traditions, but he also covers new territory, exploring the counterculture's basis in the ancient tribal and shamanic cultures of Asia, Siberia, and the Americas. In the process, he addresses some of the era's most important questions: What is the nature of reality? How does an individual's relationship to society affect this reality? Filled with Watts's playful, provocative style, the talks show the remarkable scope of a philosopher at his prime, exploring and defining the sixties counterculture as only Alan Watts could.

In God, Grace, and Righteousness in Wisdom of Solomon and Paul's Letter to the Romans, Jonathan A. Linebaugh places the Wisdom of Solomon and the Letter to the Romans in conversation. Both texts discuss the relationship of Jew and Gentile, the meaning of God's grace and righteousness, and offer readings of Israel's scripture. These shared themes provide talking-points, initiating a dialogue on anthropology, soteriology, and hermeneutics. By listening in on this conversation, Linebaugh demonstrates that while these texts have much in common, the theologies they articulate are ultimately incommensurable because they think from different events - Wisdom from the pre-creational order crafted by Sophia and exemplified in the Exodus; Paul from the incongruous gift of Christ which justifies the ungodly.