In general, the essays on wisdom literature follow this program in asking about voices and constructions in the ancient world and interpretive histories of the texts. Two of the three Psalms essays come at the same issues from a quite different angle, showing how easily old words can be appropriated by new voices to construct fresh viewpoints. Rather than evaluating each essay individually, I will reflect in this review upon how the volume works as a whole. To begin with, Wisdom and Psalms provides a multi-voiced conversation. One might wish for contributions from scholars beyond the Euro-American community, but this should not keep us from appreciating the existing collection.
Authors differ in their conclusions as well as in their methods.
In the Proverbs section, Baumann and Maier view the personified Wisdom figure with considerable caution, warning that she functions, especially in her contrastive relationship with the Strange Woman, in support of conventional patriarchal male interests. Bellis challenges the exegetical judgment that Proverbs 7's warnings against the adulteress serve primarily patriarchal interests. She suggests that both ancient and modern women stand to gain by a resolution of sexual double standards in the direction of a single standard of fidelity. Noonan reports, however, that citations from Wisdom literature and other dualistically oriented Hellenistic writings play a statistically minor role in the witch-hunting manual. Finally, the contributions vary considerably in style.