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Cover of Wisdom Is a Woman

Wisdom Is a Woman

The Canonical Metaphor of Lady Wisdom in Proverbs 1–9 Understood in Light of Theological Aesthetics

  • Biblical Studies & Commentaries
  • Theology
  • Publisher: Pickwick Publications (Wipf and Stock)
  • Published: 2019

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Publisher's Description

In Proverbs 1-9, we are introduced to stunning, scandalous, and mysterious Lady Wisdom. For millennia interpreters have endeavored to explain, simplify, or domesticate the vaunted and varied personification of this woman. In Wisdom Is a Woman, Lance Rundus illustrates that our difficulties with Lady Wisdom run much deeper than uncertainty about her origins and depiction, but are rooted in inherited assumptions about and definitions of metaphor, as well as a distorted disposition toward right hemisphere modes of knowledge that undercut the very attempt at discovering Wisdom at all. Wisdom Is a Woman invites the reader into the mode of aesthetic perception that opens the way to the beautiful, transcendent intimacy of relational knowledge born from constellations of canonical metaphor in Proverbs 1-9. In "obtaining scale" with Wisdom we discover that this paradoxical wonder is but a faint echo of the wonder and beauty of the Triune God in the person, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.


Endorsements (3)

“Lance Rundus provides a fresh and insightful exploration of the Lady Wisdom imagery in Proverbs 1–9. He critiques and engages literary theorists and establishes an appropriate metaphoric methodology by which he demonstrates the nature of this revelatory figure and her provision of wisdom’s gift. This study provides new opportunities for appreciating the theological significance of metaphoric and personified imagery and its employment across the canon. An exercise in canonical theological construction.”

Doug Miller

“Wisdom Is a Woman is a splendidly argued treatment of how the feminine imagery in Proverbs of Lady Wisdom and her antithesis, the Strange Woman, illuminates our understanding not only of wisdom personified as an abstract entity, but ultimately points us to the full embodiment of wisdom found and reflected in the triune revelation of Jesus Christ. The volume just excels in its interdisciplinary integration of theological aesthetics, recent neurological research, and cognitive metaphor theory. Highly recommended.”

Jonathan King

“In this book, Lance weaves philosophy and theology and profoundly integrates academic excellence and spirituality to point us back to the scriptural demand for fidelity. The wise are those who are faithful to their covenant relationships, divine and human. Christ’s death and resurrection make this possible. It is a must read!”

Philemon NFOR

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