A Jewish wisdom myth finds...
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A Jewish wisdom myth finds expression in these words. Wisdom takes up residence in Jerusalem. This is a reference to the Torah, the expression of God's wisdom. Wisdom themes find their way into the New Testament. Jesus is the wisdom of God articulated in and through a human life, the One greater than Solomon in all his wisdom. When the late Archbishop William Temple was a student he would often try to impress his mother with all his newfound knowledge. One day she put him in his place by saying, "O William, you know so much more than I do, but I know so much better than you do." Here is an intriguing phrase, "ineffective brilliance." It was coined by Hans Morgenthau Jr. in a perceptive article on American foreign policy during the last several decades and the human agents of that policy, especially as it was directed at the third world where we so often propped up military oligarchies. Morganthau expressed respect for the technical competence of the framers of those policies, but despite this brilliance he underlined an absence of basic insights into the human equations of history. -- Kolsti
