I was perusing Walter Brueggemann’s Reverberations of Faith today while doing some research for the “theological context” section of an exegesis paper I’m writing. I came across the following quote (from pg 235) that I think does a good job of summarizing the ethical outlook of the wisdom literature, especially Job and Qohelet (aka Ecclesiastes).

The wisdom tradition attests that all of the data is not in, and therefore ethical judgments and conclusions are endlessly provisional and open to reformulation.
The interpretive practice of the wisdom teachers, taken up by scribes, has given Judaism…enormous interpretive vitality that knows that the truth of life is hard work that requires ongoing discernment, fresh imaginative articulation, and receptivity to matters that may challenge and veto old statements. The process of transmitting wisdom to the next generation provides a model for education as monitoring disciples. Education on this horizon is not the importation of data, but socialization into an ethical perspective rooted in the theological reality of God’s ordering of creation.

I have no idea if I will be able to work this into my paper somehow, and so I thought that I ought to at least post it here.