Read Chapter 11 of TIOT, pages 373-415.

• TIOT 375: "The wisdom books of the OT are not simply inventories of experience but are reflections and interpretations of experience that are crafted in artistic speech that intends to be compelling and persuasive." What are some examples of similar wisdom literature that are being produced today?
• TIOT 377: The book of Proverbs is a complex collection that ranges startlingly from "commonsense advice" to "celebration of mystery." Does this make sense to you?
• TIOT 381: "The wisdom teachers are clearly alive to reality immediately available, insisting that even the ordinary needs to be pondered, because when noticed afresh it is indeed quite extraordinary." Supply an example from your own experience, especially noting what you found to be extraordinary.
• TIOT 382: "The authority of the sayings depends upon the utterance ringing true to the experience of the listener. The authority of such wisdom teaching relies upon the authority of the utterance, an authority finally measured by the hearer." This sounds very "postmodern"! How would you describe the authority of what you say in comparison to the authority of who you are as a minister of the Word of God?
• TIOT 389: The "doxological" character of Proverbs makes an important assertion about God: "God is aesthetically sensitive and intends creation to be a place of lovely order. It also makes an important statement about the world, that the world is intrinsically, in its deepest fabric, designed and ordered to produce life." As the reader who is able to discern the authority of this statement or not (see the previous question!), does this assertion ring true to you?
• TIOT 391: In the discussion on the relationship of theodicy and ideology, the observation is made: "Notice how ethics is intimately connected to economic advantage." Do you think the Church (or our nation!) today is guilty of such self-serving exhortations?
• TIOT 392: "Theodicy, like every explanatory theory, tends to be a mixture of practical observation, vested interest, and inscrutability." What is your way of talking about theodicy, and how does it reflect these three characteristics?
• TIOT 395, 408f: Which corresponds more closely to your experience of life: the "theodic settlements in Proverbs" or the "theodic crisis in Job" or the almost gloomy candor and disillusionment of Ecclesiastes? Why?
• TIOT 404: "Astonishing: God is not interested in the primal human question that drives the wisdom tradition, that haunts the human heart, and that has preoccupied Job." What sort of answer then is given? Is it satisfactory?
• TIOT 405: "There is a stupefying mismatch between Job's question and Yahweh's response. It is the mismatch that keeps thinking, caring people finally in crisis, because the world, even God's world, is not easily reduced to morality." As a thinking, caring person, is this good news to you?
• TIOT 406f: Be sure to read carefully the section on "The Enduring Question of Theodicy."
• TIOT 414: "There is in the ancient world a tension between faith turned inward and faith turned outward. And the tension must be preserved." How do you experience that tension?