Worldly Wisdom and Foolish Grace. Barbara Carnegie Campbell
saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. (1 Cor 1:18–21)
. . . God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are. (1 Cor 1:27–28)
Each of the lessons from Abraham’s Tent in this book begins with an exploration of what this “worldly wisdom” typically has to say on the subject of that lesson. I am using the phrase “worldly wisdom” in the same way that the Apostle Paul used the phrase, with sarcasm, to refer to the often trusted, taught, and passed down understanding of the secular cultures we live within.
Such “worldly wisdom” is not necessarily truly wise, helpful, or effective. Webster’s Ninth Collegiate Dictionary defines “wisdom” as, “1 a: accumulated philosophic or scientific learning: knowledge b: ability to discern inner qualities and relationships: insight c: good sense: judgment 2 a wise attitude or course of action 3:the teachings of the ancient wise men.”1
“Worldly wisdom” often does not lead to the best ends or the best means, but the “foolish grace” taught by Abraham, Jesus, and Mohammad, peace be upon them, is often exactly the discerning path of understanding that creates real justice and wholeness. Islam respects all prophets equally. A traditional way of showing this respect is to bless the prophets by saying “Peace be upon him (or them)” every time their name/s are spoken or written. I offer this blessing now to all prophets referred to in this study, as a way of blessing them throughout this book while not interrupting the flow of the reading by adding a typed blessing at each reference to a prophet.
The term “foolish grace” was coined when Paul wrote that “the message of the cross is foolishness.”(1 Cor 1:18) The message of the cross of Jesus is unmerited, unconditional sacrificial love rather than submission to the injustices of Roman oppression. The cross of Jesus can be summed up as the ultimate metaphor for grace. Webster’s Dictionary lists as its first definition of grace, “unmerited divine assistance given man (sic) for his regeneration or sanctification.”2 Grace is the recognition of unmerited gifts which bring peace, wholeness and goodness.
“Foolish grace” points to the fact that such unmerited favor is often seen as unwise or unbelievable by cultural standards. In truth, though it may seem foolish to those whose goal is personal security or betterment and who often believe that there is a scarcity of goods to go around, such “foolish” grace is the way to abundant and true life as opposed to the path of life that is “dead.”
During the United States presidential campaign of 2016, the divisions between the right and left wings of religion and culture in our country became dramatically deeper and more confusing. What once felt like common etiquette and common, civilized behavior was suddenly ignored in public everywhere.
The moral values that most of us held dear, regardless of which side of the political and religious fences we were on, values such as kindness, compassion, understanding, and caring for others, were threatened; truth seemed to prevail only in the eye of the beholder who began to self-select the truth that fit best for them; the goals of justice and equality were replaced by goals of personal and national wealth, security, and priority.
Although the wisdom of the world is diverse, we once generally felt our particular culture pulling us toward a common understanding of the right way to behave. Instead, we (and our children) are now pulled by media messages, commercials, movies, television, and the conversations of our family, friends, and neighbors to so called “wisdom” that does not improve human life. These messages include ideas such as:
“You should fear the stranger.”
“You will be happier if you are wealthy and own lots of stuff.”
“You are more lovable if you are young and have a prescribed and preferred body and appearance.”
“You must use violence to protect yourself from your enemies.”
“Women and children are weak and less valuable in our society.”
“People with different speech or skin color or religious belief are dangerous and therefore not to be trusted.”
The values of most faith traditions may seem “foolish” to those who trust in the “wisdom” of the world today but we have seen for ourselves, we know from experience, that values such as compassion, nonviolence, and humility are the only forces that have given real success to struggles for peace and justice throughout human history.
Lessons from Abraham’s Tent
The Abrahamic Tradition of faith is often referred to as “the children of Abraham” or “Abraham’s tent.” Within Abraham’s tent we find the faith of three of the major world religions: the faith of the Hebrew people which became, over time, the religion called “Judaism,” the faith of those who followed a Judean/Jewish teacher, Jesus of Nazareth, which became known as “Christianity,” and the faith of those who followed the revelations of Allah’s messenger, the angel Gabriel, to the Prophet Mohammad, which became known as “Islam.”
These three “families of faith” within Abraham’s tent hold many of the same stories within each of their sacred spiritual texts. The Christian faith grew out of stories and lessons that Jesus told from Torah and other writings that are now part of the Christian Elder Testament. The Quran, God’s revelation to the Prophet Mohammad in the seventh century CE, includes many of the stories of Abraham and other Elder Testament prophets, as well as many of the stories of Jesus found in the Younger Testament.
These three faith traditions are monotheistic religions which believe in one creator God. Abraham is credited as the founder of monotheism by all of these faith traditions. Mohammad, in his travels throughout the Middle East as a merchant, met Jews and Christians and heard their faith stories. The story is told that Mohammad may have been so discouraged by the constant conflict and violence between those two religions, which were so closely related, that he continued to listen for a new message from Allah about a more pure form of living faithfully as Allah willed.
Many people who are part of these three faith groups acknowledge today that they worship the same God, the same divine Ground of all Being. There is little disagreement within Abraham’s tent today about whether the “foolish grace” of Yahweh/God/Allah and the “wisdom” of the world are often on radically different moral and ethical tracks.
One of the over-arching lenses through which I have studied the scriptures of the Elder and Younger Biblical Testaments and have learned to think theologically is the lens of interfaith understanding, especially the lens of those sharing Abraham’s tent. Each chapter in this study will begin with three quotes, listed in chronological order, first a quote from the Elder Testament, then one from the Synoptic Gospels of the Younger Testament, then a quote from the Quran or the Hadith of Islamic traditions.
The Elder Testament quotes are taken from the Tanakh, the English translation completed by The Jewish Publication Society in 1985. “Tanakh” is a word originating from an acronym which represents the three major parts of Hebrew Scripture: t for Torah, n for nevi’im or prophets, and k for kethuvim or writings.
The Tanakh was first translated into an Aramaic version called the Targum. Because many Jews in the Helenistic world spoke Greek, the Tanakh was also quickly translated into a Greek version, called the Septuagint, after the “seventy-two” translators who worked on it. Legend has it that each of the seventy-two came up with an identical translation even though they worked separately.3
Unless I include a specific reference in the footnotes, the scripture references taken from the Elder and Younger Testaments of Christian scripture throughout this study will be taken from New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. The New