The wisdom of God: Sophia and Christian theology - Cover Story

Christian Century, Oct 19, 1994 by Leo D. Lefebure

Recent scholarship has recognized that the sages shared and supported the patriarchal bias of their culture, judging women from a male perspective either as dangerous temptresses to male virtue or as helpful assistants to their husbands. James Crenshaw acknowledges that the wisdom tradition has a "definite bias" against women. Carol A. Newsom of the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, in an essay titled Woman and the Discourse of Patriarchal Wisdom: A Study of Proverbs 1-9" in Gender and Difference in Ancient Israel, edited by Peggy L. Day (1989), stresses the patriarchal context of Proverbs 1-9. The instructor initiates the reader into patriarchal values and bids the reader assume the stance of a submissive son listening to an authoritative father. in patriarchal social structures, dominant males hold power and rule over lower figures in a series of subordinate relationships. Obedience is a central virtue, and religious authority usually undergirds the hierarchy. According to Newsom, the voice of personified Wisdom in Proverbs 1:20-33 and 8:1-36 reinforces the cultural voice of the father and thus inculcates the values of a patriarchal society. Personified Wisdom, who guides kings, rulers, princes, and nobles (Prov. 8:15-16), speaks for and supports the male-dominated social order itself. The alternative voice of the smooth-talking "strange woman" (Prov. 2:16-19; 5-7) represents not only sexual misconduct but also all the other threats that could seduce unwary men and undermine the status quo.

Feminist scholars have argued that female symbols function in a particular way for men in patriarchal societies: because women are themselves in marginal positions, they often serve as symbols of the margins of the male order, whether as protecting powers from above or menacing dangers from without. According to Newsom, the personifications of Wisdom and Folly as women (Prov. 7-9) function as symbols of the boundaries of patriarchy: a higher female power, Wisdom, is a guardian from heaven (Prov. 8), while another woman, Folly, is the gate to Sheol (Prov. 7:24-27; 9:13-18). As long as women are excluded from having a voice in society, this symbolism appears "natural."

When women become conscious of their marginal position and enter public discourse, Newsom argues, they cannot use female symbols as projections in the same way, and the old symbolic order faces a crisis: "The habit of patriarchy to think symbolically by means of woman is thrown into confusion." Through this crisis another lesson about wisdom emerges. In Proverbs 1-9 the father teaches the son to resist the seductive discourse of the strange woman by listening to its internal contradictions. Newsom invites the reader to turn this lesson against the patriarchal voice itself and reflect upon its own problematic assumptions. Thus for Newsom, the instruction about wisdom becomes an invitation to deconstruct the dominant symbolic order. The lesson of critical listening overturns the specific content of the lessons taught.