Ancient Wisdom: Faith & Doubt in Ecclesiastes, Job, Proverbs, & the Psalms

The 2007 Uhlman Family Seminar, With Support from the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies
A Special Monday-Only Seminar

October 22, 2007

In the search for answers to age-old questions about faith and doubt, many of us turn to wisdom literature – the contemplative and speculative aphorisms, monologues or dialogues found in the Hebrew Bible in works such as Ecclesiastes, Job, Proverbs, and the Psalms, which offer an astonishing range of imaginative, consoling, and even provocative insights into our human condition.

Beginning with a discussion of two of the primary characteristics of wisdom literature – the unchanging nature of the physical universe and the unpredictability of human nature – we will explore what role these characteristics play in God’s presence in history and in the vagaries of human behavior. In a related set of questions, we’ll also examine faith and doubt from the various perspectives of the sages who produced wisdom literature. How did they define wisdom, what inspired their work, and where did these writers themselves look for answers? For some of them wisdom was the result of paying careful attention to the natural world, while for others wisdom was elusive, solely within God’s purview. In the concluding segments of our seminar, and moving from ancient to modern times, we’ll examine female figures who played prominent roles in the Book of Proverbs (including goddess-like creatures present with God during the formation of the world) and recent readings of canonical texts relevant to faith and doubt, some of which question the fundamental goodness of creation. Are these readings heretical and, indeed, if they are not, how should we make sense of the doubt they cast upon our faith in the intrinsic value of being human?

Topics and Speakers

Unchanging Truth and the God of History: Proverbs and Ecclesiastes in a Mutable World
Thomas A. Stumpf, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature Emeritus

The Search for Wisdom: What Were They Looking For?
Anathea Portier-Young, Assistant Professor of Old Testament, Duke University Divinity School

Women and Wisdom: Images Lofty and Lowly
Carol Meyers, Mary Grace Wilson Professor of Religion, Duke University

Gor Nisht: Listening to Yiddish Radio with Job, Koheleth and the Rebbe of Kotsk
Jonathan Boyarin, Kaplan Professor of Modern Jewish Thought, Department of Religious Studies

Ancient Wisdom Then and Now
Professors Stumpf, Portier-Young, Meyers, and Boyarin

Time and Cost

9:15 a.m.-5:15 p.m., Monday, October 22, 2007. The tuition is $120.00 ($105.00 by September 20). The optional lunch is $10. Scholarship tuition for teachers is $60 ($52.50 by September 20). 10 contact hours for 1 unit of renewal credit.

For information about lodging click here.

Co-Sponsored by the General Alumni Association.
For information about GAA discounts and other scholarships available to Humanities Program participants, click here.

Register for this seminar.