Religion and Theology

This paper seeks to provide a critical analysis of the book Wisdom and Creation, The Theology of Wisdom Literature by Leo Perdue and whether the author has been able to deal with the entire concept of Wisdom in a better and clearer way. The book is the classic theology book that connects spiritual well-being and wisdom of the people around you very important for her to be happy. The wisdom is best imparted through teaching, though one should have a knack for learning it, the feel of attraction towards the nature and its activities.

Introduction
The book discusses the wisdom and its definition and impact on the readers by examining all the five stories or parts of the book in detail. These parts are the five major wisdom books namely Proverbs, Job, Qoheleth, Ben Sira and the Wisdom of Solomon. While the Wisdom of Solomon is known throughout the world in even little literary circles, how Jobs case was relevant here still remains to be disputed. The message given by all these books is one that is, creation theology and its correlative affirmation , providence  were at the centre of the sages understanding of God, the World and the Humanity (Purdue, 10).

The subject of wisdom as it has been discussed in the book during the first two chapters says that during the early days, people were good and altruistic because they feared God, that if they did anything evil, God will punish them. But this was one of the most moral and primitive forms of wisdom and many at that time did abide by it. As the time progressed and more and more sages took up the art and studying of practicing and seeking wisdom, enlightenment did dawn upon them in some of the other and after some time, wisdom was thought to have acquired through divine intervention and the a divine being enjoyed maturity, longevity, reproduction and the general enhancement of life (Perdue, 26)

Further in the analysis of the Old Testament Theology, the author Brevord Childs followed a rather twisted way and went on to first examine and indulge onto a revelation of sorts, the revelation about the relationship between creation and wisdom. He acknowledges the ultimate power of the Word of God but again like some of his contemporaries, he believed wisdom as an involving divine mystery at work.
This is the wisdom that is based on the fear of God. A passage from the book will make it clearer This wisdom is also the active voice of God that calls people to true life establishes thrones and kingdoms, speaks through the actions and decisions of the leaders to rule justly and witnesses to the creator. This revelatory voice of the God also assumes the providential role of directing human life in the area of moral behavior and discourse. As an essential witness to Gods purpose in his creation, wisdom is built into the very structure of reality and in this role seeks to guide humanity to the way of truth. And this is the wisdom which not found through reason or logic but through the fear of God. (Purdue, 30).

The author has dealt with the subject of wisdom in a rather intricate way and the level of details and explanations he has gone into as a part of his work is truly mesmerizing. He has not left a book, a psalm or an observation left unexplored when it was apparent that there did exist a connection between the artifact and the establishment of wisdom during that particular time in history. The author also made every possible attempt to make the readers understand the various literary works of other thinkers on the matter.

The readers at a later stage are introduced to the sapiential theory of wisdom, the basis for which were cosmological and anthropological in nature. That means, both heaven and the humans assert and affirm the creation as well as existence of wisdom. the affirmation of the providence of God, the order of the cosmos, the divine gift of life, the nurturing of human beings throughout life, and the goal of living in harmony with creation are fundamental themes throughout the wisdom corpus (Perdue, 46).
Sages played a very important part in first realizing the relationship between creation and wisdom and then explaining the same to the people and the masses.  Perhaps the most detailed account of wisdom as what it is and how it manifests itself, what are its benefits and what happens when one shuns it are given through Proverbs which have nine different volumes and each of the nine volumes had its own take on it.

The most effective amongst these proverbs is undisputedly the Proverbs of the Solomon that contains quite an interesting account of Woman Wisdom.  But before that, it is worthwhile to mention that sapiential teaching is aimed at three groups of people namely, the humanity in general, the simple of the unlearned and the sage, who seeks to enhance the understanding and embodiment of wisdom.
The beauty f the Wisdom can be gauzed from the first set of proverbs, wherein the teaching is divided in three forms or the three strophes. The first strophes concerns with the joy of one who has found wisdom and is elated beyond expression.

Happy is the person who has found Wisdom, and the one who continues to obtain insight, for her gain is better than silver and her yield than fine gold (Perdue, 80). Visibly the gain that one derives after gaining wisdom is more profound than the profit one can make through gold and silver.

In the second strophe, the wisdom is considered to be the Goddess of life and the poem written in her adulation is as follows, Long Life is in her right hand, in her left are wealth and honour, Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peaceful, She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her and all who embrace her are happy (Perdue, 81).

It was King Solomon who was granted wisdom through divine intervention and thus he could thus perceive the true beauty and might of Wisdom and history has it that there wasnt any dearth of riches in his kingdom.

The third Strophe talks about the wisdoms role in creation and says that the Lord by means of wisdom established the earth,  the heavens were secured through understanding, by means of his knowledge the primeval deep was divided, and the skies continue to drip their dew (Perdue,  80).

It is clear that the almighty made ample use of wisdom in not only creating the world but also ordering it and managing the life producing activities. Almost all the proverbs have established the deep inherent value of the wisdom and the author has dwelled sufficiently on each of them and given a detailed analysis of the same on grounds of various cosmological, anthropological phenomenon and theodicy, that is the way religion affects things.

Surprisingly, the author also refers to the story of Jobs, in talking about wisdom. The story of Jobs is very famous and it is about conflict between Satan and Job, loyalty and torture and the pain and cursing. Apparently, god  sets Satan upon one of his ardent devotees Job in order to test his loyalty by checking if he resorts to cursing the God if all his wealth is taken away from his and his life becomes full of miseries. The Satan was very confident that this will happen but to his own surprise, Jobs loyalty towards God did not diminish at all even after his kids had been put to death and all he had was lost. This was the level of trust he had on god, and the scholarly studies relate it directly with the proposition that out of fear of God, love towards him arises, which is one of the primitive basis for defining wisdom and not at all valid in  todays  world.

But later as we see, Jobs does take to cursing his destiny and God and awaits his death. Why I did not die at birth Expire at the time I came forth from the womb....For now I would be at rest and silent , I would sleep and then I would have rest, with kings and counselors of earth, those who rebuild ruins for themselves (Perdue, 132).

The ultimate wisdom that pours forth from the story of Jobs is that righteousness always pays and that does not discriminate between the man and the woman or the pauper and the king. Anybody can be at the receiving end of Gods blessings as well as inflictions at any point but those who have wronged others will pay for their acts dearly.

Reading the book had was a self reveling experience for me as well as I got to know what the Scriptures and the allied texts have to say about Wisdom and what role does it play in the process of creation and nurturing of mankind. While going through various schools of thoughts and various interpretations, I was able to apply the concepts to judge how big a role did wisdom play in my upbringing and how wise I am. I was also forced to dwell upon the extent to which overall well being of the society was affected through individual as well as collective wisdom.