Wisdom is an integratal part of all philosophical and religious traditions in the world. Focusing on the concept of wisdom, this book examines the difficulties and problems facing comparative studies of the early Confucian and Israelite traditions by exploring the cosmological and ethical implications of wisdom in the older layers of Christian and Confucian texts. Presenting a detailed discussion of how wisdom was understood in philosophical, religious and social contexts by the writers of the so-called early Confucian and Israelite wisdom texts, this book offers an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the significance of wisdom in the East and West, and to our knowledge of different and yet related ways of life as understood in their literature.

Xinzhong Yao

Contents: Preface; Wisdom in a comparative perspective; Confucian and Israelite sources; Knowledge and wisdom; Wisdom as the way of life; Virtue, moral training and wise man images; Family, politics and the sage-king paradigm; Secularity and sacredness of wisdom; Conclusion: Wisdom as breaking through human finitude; Bibliography; Appendices; Index.