Major Reviews

ticularly instructive is the analysis of plagiarism in relation to traditions of black

preaching. C o n c e r n i n g King's sexual activity, Lischer is m o r e persuasive in showing how King u n d e r s t o o d the gap between his p r e a c h i n g a n d his life than h e is
in proposing how we o u g h t to evaluate it.
But that is a relatively m i n o r complaint a b o u t an otherwise significant
achievement. Anyone who reads this book should develop a d e e p e r appreciation
of King, his legacy, a n d the power of the p r e a c h e d word. Preachers, biblical
scholars, a n d theologians in particular o u g h t to read it because it will inspire a
renewed appreciation of the dynamic richness of scriptural imagination as well
as the theological resources for social witness. In a time when p e o p l e are increasingly u n a b l e even to h e a r the biblical stories, m u c h less think with a n d t h r o u g h
them, the task of cultivating such a scriptural imagination is u n d o u b t e d l y m o r e
difficult a n d d a u n t i n g than it was in King's time. Yet it is also n o less urgentfor
the sake of o u r churches, of o u r world, and, most importantly, for the sake of
faithful witness to God.
L. Gregory J o n e s
Loyola College in Maryland
Baltimore, Maryland

Character in Crisis: A Fresh Approach to the

Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament, by wuuam p.
Brown. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN
0-8028-4135-X.

Co., Grand Rapids,

1996.

179 pp. $17.00

(paper).

T H E AIM OF THIS BOOK is "to d e m o n s t r a t e that the idea of character constitutes the
unifying t h e m e or center of the wisdom literature, whose raison d'tre is to profile
ethical character" (p. 21). T h e threefold m e t h o d for accomplishing this goal entails: (1) delineating profiles of character in the individual wisdom books, specifically Proverbs, J o b , a n d Ecclesiastes; (2) distinguishing the role of the c o m m u nity in forming character, as well as the individual's place in society; a n d (3)
articulating the worldview of the sages. Brown begins the discussion by tracing
r e c e n t developments that have b r o u g h t virtue a n d character into public discourse; in relating character a n d virtue, h e describes the types of virtue a n d
character traits o n e e n c o u n t e r s in literary discourse. For Brown, wisdom begins
a n d ends with the self; self-mastery is a r e c u r r i n g emphasis in the t h o u g h t of the
sages. H e takes a comprehensive look at the progression of character within the
three wisdom books. Instead of discussing several specific types of character a n d
searching for representatives in each wisdom book, h e chooses to e x a m i n e character d e v e l o p m e n t itself.

Interpretation

423

Within Proverbs Brown discerns movement from a silent son in the initial
chapters to an adult male who has embodied the parental instruction and ac
quired as wife a super matriarch The chief character in Job goes through a radi
cal change, a virtual paradigm shift Finding within himself the courage to call
God to account, in the end Job is transformed Likewise, Brown thinks Qoheleth
fashions a new character, one devoid of wisdom from the past, as a consequence,
Qoheleth becomes a preacher of joy and divine mercy
The e\idence foi such positive readings of Job and Ecclesiastes is dubious at
best Even if one accepts Brown's reading of Job 42 6 ("I hereby reject [my life],
and am comforted concerning dust and ashes"), the picture of a tranquil Job
basking in the goodness of God (p 118) fails to acknowledge the brutal violence
that the author of Job attributes to the deity Life's messmess hardly disappears
from memory even when one acknowledges the wonders of nature Job's God is
not a loving parent, and nothing can exonerate this sovereign from responsibility
for the cruel fate that befell Job, his children, and his servants Scholars may use
the language of "ordered chaos," but loose ends abound in the book Brown's
interpretation does not do justice to the sinister side of deity
Even less convincing is the understanding of Qoheleth as preacher of joy
and grateful recipient of divine largesse The emptiness, indeed futility, of life
has placed a question mark over everything Qoheleth does, including the little
pleasures one manages to seize while young enough to do so In Qoheleth's
view, these are also futile or absurd To egard Qoheleth as a teacher of qui
etude, simplicity, enjoyment, the limits of vice and virtue, fear of God, and carpe
diem is to rob his words of their exceptional power
Legitimate differences among scholars reflect much more than an ambigu
ous text Each reader invests the text with his or her values, for by such means
the past continues to inform the present To some degree, readings of classic
texts say more about readers than about the silent words on the page Brown un
derstands the wisdom literature as tidy expressions of persons who grow in
knowledge and virtue, convinced of God's goodness In my view, this interpreta
tion of Job and Ecclesiastes derives more from modern religious orthodoxy than
from the Hebrew text The dissident voice has been silenced so often, are we re
ally that afraid of hearing the unspeakable^
Having said this, I hasten to add that Brown's analysis teems with insights
into character development in wisdom literature At his best when analyzing
Proverbs, he stresses communal control, the place of individuals in the group,
the exercise of parental authority, and the introduction of wisdom as a means of
transcending the family and moving into the center of daily activity Ageless wis
dom also transcends generations and gives young men guilty consciences Read
ers may ask whether Brown has downplayed instrumental virtues among the
teachers, and whether sages actually "crowned" the virtues of justice, righteous
ness, and equity In my view, the interests of individuals dominate the proverbial
424

sayings, leaving little place for a vision of a just society

Brown's comparison of Job the social outcast with the foreign / woman in
Proverbs 1-9 nicely describes the depth of his dishonor Job's reliance on personal experience hardly represents a new departure in wisdom, from the outset,
sages combined insights from tradition and from current experience Although
Brown accuses interpreters of character assassination in regard to Ehhu, the introduction must surely point in this direction with its excessive references to his
fury, as does Yahweh's silence about him
The description of Qoheleth as one who undermines traditional instruction
in the name of wisdom enables Brown to discuss various features of Ecclesiastes
its self-referential style, immortalization of failure, elevation of youth, omission of
the family, and materialist slant Perhaps he is right that wisdom has become devoid of personhood, hence cannot be embodied Fear of God, however, must
surely retain an element of terror Does Brown really believe that the aged need
not lose the capacity for enjoyment^ Stark reality should color such affirmations,
in this respect, I trust Qoheleth and the author of Job, who experienced life as it
really is and not as one might wish it to be
Character and Crisis is a significant book Had the title's final word ("crisis")
played a greater role, the book would have been more true to life
James L Crenshaw
Duke University
Durham, North Carolina

T h e P o s t m o d e r n B i b l e , by the Bible and Culture Collective Yale

University Press, New Haven, 1995 398 pp $35 00 ISBN 0-300-06090-4
It was not written by an individual author or even by a
group of individual authors, nor was it written by a community as a consensus
statement It comes from a "collective" composed of ten biblical scholars George
Aichele, Fred W Burnett, Elizabeth A Castelli, Robert M Fowler, David Jobling,
Stephen D Moore, Gary A Phillips, Tina Pippin, Regina M Schwartz, and
Wilhelm Wuellner All are teachers and authors in Old and New Testament studies and theory of biblical interpretation They have collaborated to produce a
text that gives a broad purview of the most significant forms of postmodern biblical criticism, but no one of them emerges as the author, or even principal author, of any of the seven chapters Given this unusual method of composition, it
is to the credit of the editors that the chapters have considerable stylistic unity
and intellectual coherence
THIS IS AN UNUSUAL BOOK

The individual chapters present seven major approaches to biblical mterpre426

^ s
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