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Letter to America No. 4 - By Robert Kolb
What are the implications of the American’s failure to treasure wisdom? If the word slips to the edge of our consciousness, will the very idea be put on the list of endangered concepts?
Letter to North America 4 January 2007
They are called “the Wise Ones” – in German, “die Weisen.” The American expression for that, I think, is “expert,” for they are five officially appointed but independent professionals, authorities in the field of economics and social theory. They stand outside government agencies and industrial allegiances when they consult together to give the German public advice regarding policies in the public square. They are much more than merely the experts who can put together graphs and compute statistics. The German government and the German public count on them to provide “wisdom,” more than knowledge, more than expertise or “know-how.
It is difficult to express in American English because the word “wisdom” is slowly disappearing from our vocabulary. Two years ago, as I read and heard reports on the presidential campaign in the United States, neither North American nor European commentators described either George Bush or John Kerry as a “wise” man. In my observations neither did their own publicists. “Know-how” and “can-do” typify what we expect from people. Is it that “wisdom” has become suspect because it implies that some have a gift beyond our power to create for ourselves, and that violates our sense of everyone’s being equal? Is it that we are just not interested in the higher reaches of wisdom but only in the practical accomplishment of fulfilling immediate goals?
What are the implications of the American’s failure to treasure wisdom? If the word slips to the edge of our consciousness, will the very idea be put on the list of endangered concepts?
Wisdom is more than expertise, proficiency, command of data, sharpened skills. Those all suffice when things are as they should be. They cover our bases when order prevails and things are in the right place. Wisdom is what a community needs when there is slippage, when the pieces do not quite fit together, when one person or group stands out and does not know how to find its way back to where it belongs. Wisdom is the ability to seek out the truth (there is another word that does not enjoy robust health among us at the beginning of the twenty-first century), not only when it is not clear what the truth is, but also when it is clear but brings with it negative moral consequences. The Dictionary – I looked first in Grimms Wörterbuch to see what the Germans understand by “Weisheit” – says that it is first of all “Einsicht,” insight, the ability to look inside or behind appearances, to identity and grasp the more mysterious, less obvious ways life works. The English Dictionary (specifically, The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, ed. William Little et a. [3. ed., Oxford, 1973]), tells me that wisdom is the “capacity of judging rightly in matters relating to life and conduct; soundness of judgment in the choice of means and ends” (p. 2257) and that to be wise means “to discern, to perceive and adopt the best means for accomplishing an end; characterized by good sense and prudence” (p. 2258). Wisdom involves putting life experience to work to maneuver in those situations where the rules that human research has estimated should meet the requirements no longer do. This Dictionary also says that in English usage the word is used for Jesus Christ.
Perhaps part of our problem with grasping what wisdom is lies in our unwillingness to submit to being creatures of God – and that in a fallen world, where we can live with the fact that things do not fit and fall together the way they should. Americans have brought the world so much good by being a “take-charge,” “get-things-done” kind of people. We think human beings really can master the world, and wisdom is in part the acknowledgement that the world sometimes master us and we just have to cope. Wisdom is fundamentally that understanding of how to proceed with life that has its beginning in the fear of the Lord (Ps. 111:10).
The psalmist knew that genuine human wisdom does begin by acknowledging that God is God, “full of honor and majesty” as we experience him going about his business. He is righteous, that is gracious and merciful. He provides food, and he is faithful and just and trustworthy. He even rescues and redeems his people. Wisdom is framed by praise of him (Ps. 111:3-10). Only when the world is secure in God’s hands can we be confident enough to look honestly at life’s wrinkles and cracks and begin to make those discerning judgments which bring ourselves and others out of dilemmas by providing answers that are not to be found in the textbooks.
As with so many of the things that, at least from afar, seem to be lacking in North American society today, wisdom seems to be an easier commodity (to use the American word) to lose than regain. There have been wise people in the world outside the Christian tradition, but one has to ask whether the Christians do not offer the best chance for regaining the concept – whatever word we might use – among us. That is part of the gift we may bring to our fellow citizens, whom God has called us to serve.
Written By: host
Date Posted: 1/10/2007
Number of Views: 916
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