The book of Proverbs is the starting point of the biblical wisdom tradition. But how did individual proverbs, instructions and poems come together to form the various collections we have today? Katharine Dell explores the possible social contexts for this varied material in the royal court, wisdom schools and popular culture. She draws shrewdly on materials from the wisdom traditions of the ancient Near East, in particular Egypt, in order to bolster and enhance her theories. She argues that Proverbs had a theological purpose from its conception, with God's creativity being an integral theme of the text rather than one added in later redactions. Dell also shows that echoes of other Old Testament genres such as prophecy, law and cult can be found in Proverbs, notably in chapters 1-9, and that its social and theological context is much broader than scholars have recognised in the past.

The book of Proverbs in social and theological context

The primary aim of this dissertation is to consider how Irenaeus of Lyons’ christocentric reading of protology, soteriology, and eschatology provides a useful theological framework for organizing Pauline ktisiology in a way that contributes to contemporary ecotheological scholarship. This investigation builds upon recent shifts away from covenant theology and toward theological frameworks that more thoroughly consider creation themes, as well as cultural shifts toward greater ecological consciousness. Together, these shifts have contributed to the development of ecotheology as a new respected field within constructive theology. Given that creation theology has not been considered a strong thread within Pauline theology and that the Pauline corpus has not been a source for many contributions to the ecotheological discourse, this study opted for a history-of-reception approach. Irenaeus of Lyons (115-202 CE) is an exceptional example of a reader who is sensitive to both creation categories and christological texts within the Pauline corpus, and he was, therefore, a valuable resource for this study.
In order to bring the creation theology of Paul, as framed by Irenaeus, into conversation with the emerging corpus of ecotheological scholarship, this study is organized around three areas of exegetical and theological inquiry. First, it explores the structural significance of creation motifs in Pauline theology as well as their relation to Christology, soteriology, and ecclesiology. Second, it analyzes Irenaeus’ deployment of Paul in the formation of a biblical theology of creation. And third, through these exegetical and theological resources, this study suggests possibilities for how Pauline theology might contribute toward the growing corpus of ecotheology.

Christ, New Creation, and the Cosmic Goal of Redemption: A Study of Pauline Ktisiology and Its Interpretation by Irenaeus

In few areas of biblical scholarship is there more lively interest at the present time than in the study of &dquo;Wisdom.&dquo; B. V. Malchow has drawn attention to the significance of Wisdom, with its focus on creation, humanism and universalism, for contemporary Christian theology (Malchow). The present study is concerned with the related but more limited question of the place of Wisdom in biblical theology. Wisdom suffered from comparative neglect in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: with the abandonment of the Solomonic authorship of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes the Wisdom literature came to be regarded as late and theologically unimportant. Doubtless another factor was the dominance of biblical studies by Protestant scholars for whom the important books of Wisdom and Sirach were not part of the canon of Scripture. The publication in 1923 of the Egyptian &dquo;Teaching of Amenemope,&dquo; with its parallels to Proverbs 22-24, graphically illustrated the setting of Wisdom in the widespread international wisdom movement of the Ancient Near East, and stimulated a period of scholarly activity in the twenties and thirties. Wisdom studies resumed after a hiatus

The Place of Wisdom in Biblical Theology

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Das Geheimnis der Gegenwart Gottes

The author undertakes an evaluation and classification of those texts in First Testament Wisdom Literature which personify Wisdom in hymnic fashion. Such a classification may have value not only in itself, but it may be useful for understanding the nature of traditions known to writer of the Johannine Prologue. The author proposes a division of such hymns into the categories of “Hidden,” “Accessible,” and “Apocalyptic.”

Samuel Terrien

Papers

The Play of Wisdom: Turning Point in Biblical Theology