Wisdom for the Nations

The growing field of missional hermeneutics has tended to focus on the great overarching narrative of the whole biblical canon which renders to us the mission of God for all creation and all nations. And within that frame, exegetical and hermeneutical interest in the Old Testament from a missional perspective has focused mainly on the narrative and prophetic scriptures that carry that great redemptive tradition. The Wisdom Literature has been rather neglected, as indeed it has often been in the general field of Old Testament theology. After all, in what possible way could books like Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Job be relevant for mission?

Convinced that a missional hermeneutic, if it is to be truly "whole Bible" in its validity, must be capable of application to any part of Scripture, in Wisdom for the Nations: A Missional Reading of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job, Chris Wright sets out to ask exactly that question. He first proposes a suite of heuristic questions that can uncover the missional dimensions of any biblical text, such as: where does this text fit into and relate to the grand narrative of the mission of God? What does this reveal about the God who is on mission and about the people whom he calls to participate with him? What does this text reveal about the human fallen condition and conversely of the scale and scope of the biblical good news that addresses it? How would this text have functioned to shape the people of God in their missional locatedness then, and how might it do so now?

Wright then addresses these questions in turning to Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Job, and suggests that the answers may be both surprising and fruitful in deepening our understanding of the mission of God, and our theology and practice of mission as God’s people today.