Abstract
Anne W. Stewart's book insightfully critiques the idea that in the biblical wisdom tradition character is imagined to be static and predetermined. Stewart argues, building on the work of William P. Brown, that "the cultivation of wisdom and the formation of wise character in its student" is the purpose of Proverbs as a work (2). Stewart's innovation to this claim is that Proverbs not only advances this message in its content, but significantly, in its poetic form. "Through its poetic form, Proverbs appeals to the whole human person, attending to his emotions, motivations, desires, and imagination, not simply his rational capacities" (3). Stewart's core insight is important: Proverbs, in its received form, articulates a view of wisdom distinct from an idea encountered elsewhere in the biblical literary tradition, that wisdom is a divine gift, a static virtue outside of human control. That Stewart recognizes the central role form plays in Proverbs and in articulating its argument for "character formation" (or, using the vocabulary of Proverbs itself, "the acquisition of wisdom") is all the more deserving of praise.