Wisdom in Early Confucian and Israelite Traditions

Xinzhong Yao is Professor of Chinese Religions and Ethics at the University of Wales, Lampeter, UK.

’This volume is by a much respected scholar who is bringing the richness of an important culture and language to our attention.’ Interreligious Insight ’The author is to be congratulated on this fine work. One would wish more comparative studies of this kind.’ International Review of Biblical Studies ’... [Xinzhong Yao's] work is a true masterpiece and not only accomplishes all that he himself set out as his task, but offers a superb model of how two religious/philosophical traditions can be read in light of each other in such a way that both are not only treated with equal breadth and depth but that their investigation uncovers riches in each in a way that an intramural study would likely miss... a book that deserves to be widely read and closely studied, not just by experts in the respective fields of Confucianism and Old Testament studies, but all those involved in virtually any area of religious studies...’ Journal of Chinese Religions

• Contents: Preface; Wisdom in a comparative perspective; Confucian and Israelite sources; Knowledge and wisdom; Wisdom as the way of life; Virtue, moral training and wise man images; Family, politics and the sage-king paradigm; Secularity and sacredness of wisdom; Conclusion: Wisdom as breaking through human finitude; Bibliography; Appendices; Index.