THEMES IN OLD TESTAMENT WISDOM LITERATURE

Do you feel like a fool who can’t get a handle on life? Do you feel that your life is chaotic and on the verge of unraveling? Then you can understand the importance of ancient wisdom as found in the inspired word of God.
Fr. Harrington brings to life in a vivid and riveting fashion the social and religious climate of the ancient world and helps the listener better understand the incredible wealth of knowledge that is available in the Wisdom Books. Preachers, teachers and spiritual guides will find this presentation intellectually stimulating, practical and inspiring.
The everyday help that Proverbs offered the ancients and the stark realism of Qoheleth are explained in clear and concise manner. The importance of the fear of the Lord and the errors of the wicked are captured in Sirach and Wisdom and affirm the ancient truth that even if the wicked appear to prosper in this life they are never to be envied and they will always be considered fools. The poem of the good wife that ends Proverbs is astonishingly modern and sets up a model of womanhood that perhaps none can really match although many try.
The context of this poem is the key to its understanding. Honor and shame, evil and death, afterlife, friendship and community are all delved into in these ancient works. In them we can clearly see that modern humanity can benefit from the Godly writers of ancient Israel and her neighbors.