Proverbs and the Problems of the Moral Self
This article applies the Heelas–Lock model of conceptualizing the moral self to the book of Proverbs in such a way as to account, in psychological-anthropological terms, for the variety of moral voices in Proverbs 10–30, while holding that the idea of just deserts cannot be treated lightly, as if it...
| Published in: | Journal for the study of the Old Testament |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sage
2015
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| In: |
Journal for the study of the Old Testament
Year: 2015, Volume: 40, Issue: 1, Pages: 25-42 |
| Further subjects: | B
Women
B Desire B Theodicy B multi-voiced text B moral self B Proverbs B Wealth B Anthropodicy |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Electronic
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| Summary: | This article applies the Heelas–Lock model of conceptualizing the moral self to the book of Proverbs in such a way as to account, in psychological-anthropological terms, for the variety of moral voices in Proverbs 10–30, while holding that the idea of just deserts cannot be treated lightly, as if it were just one voice among others. The alternatives offered to the theory of retribution are just that: attempts to deal with its inadequacy in real life while maintaining its dominance in the concept of the moral self and its formation. The moral reasoning underlying such alternatives is inherently contradictory to the logic of retribution, but both individuals and cultures can accommodate logically incompatible beliefs as long as no one attempts to impose a single system of knowledge on them. As this article tries to show in regard to Proverbs 1–9, to do so accentuates the anxiety latent in the fact of competing moral logics to the degree that the anxiety must, in turn, be suppressed. In the opening instructions, the relatively blithely (save, perhaps, for Agur) fragmented moral self projected by the proverb collections is confounded by its desires and by the teacher's conflicted efforts to both mask and capitalize on them. |
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| ISSN: | 1476-6728 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal for the study of the Old Testament
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/0309089215605785 |