Title: Wisdom Is a Woman
Description: The ultimate aim of this dissertation is to discover what metaphorical entailments of women and womanhood are mapped onto wisdom as an abstract entity and then to discern how this personification is intended to inform wisdom. After a summary explanation of shortcomings in traditional definitions and models, stable definition and methodology are provided via recent developments in Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Conceptual Blending, and the Theological Aesthetics of Hans Urs von Balthasar. After the methodological prologemena, exegesis is divided into Balthasar's two stages of aesthetic perception: one which focus upon perception of the form of the MT and the other which intends to dwell upon the inward beauty, the lumen of that thing as it relates to the reality of beauty in the incarnation. As such, Wisdom as Woman is understood as that desirable paradox beckoning to relational fidelity that reaches its ultimate fulfillment only in the death, resurrection and glorification of Christ. The presentation for Lady Wisdom in Prov 1-4 aims at generating an understanding of and desire for parental and covenantal wisdom via paradox linking the vaunted depiction of divine and covenantal Lady Wisdom in the Prophets with the familiar, personal and protective characterizations of the young manʻ́ ś faithful wife. In Prov 5-6 the Strange Woman provides a foil for the 'wife of your youth' that illustrates the disparity of outcomes for the youth based upon a blend of metaphors for marital and covenant fidelity that reasonate with the prophetic metaphor of marriage is covenant/idolatry is adultery. In Prov 7-9 the characterization, invitation, and destination associated with Lady Wisdom and the Strange Woman echoes the foil in Prov 5-6 and demonstrates that fidelity to divine covenant and human relationship is the ultimate criterion for discerning wisdom. Womanhood is used as a source/input category for Lady Wisdom to highlight the key domains of relational, marital and covenant fidelity, while allowing for the fusion of desire, obedience and blessing. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus is the apex of divine revelation and the point to which all creation and history lean.
Subjects: Bible, criticism, interpretation, etc., Wisdom (Biblical personification), Wisdom, Biblical teaching, Women, Aesthetics, Religious aspects, Christianity