WISDOM 1

Why wisdom as my first topic?

At this point in life, I feel  my own personal lack of wisdom more keenly than ever.  I hope this year's focus does more than give me increased knowledge, I hope to end the year wiser than I began.

They Syntopicon of the Great Books of the Western World is composed of 102 "chapters" or topics arranged in alphabetical order.  Chapter 101 is titled Wisdom.  Like all of the Syntopicon's chapters, Wisdom is mainly comprised of an index of references organized by an outline.  The first topic in its outline is

1. The nature, origins and kinds of wisdom

References from the Bible don't show up under this heading until the third subtopic:

     1c. Theological and mystical wisdom:
               the supernatural wisdom of faith and vision;
               the gift of wisdom

This is where we start then - wisdom as a gift, the wisdom that comes from God.  The first reference is I Kings 3:5-14.  We begin our study in deep waters, with the proverbial "wisdom of Solomon."