Moving away from focusing on wisdom as a literary genre, this book delves into the lived, embodied and formative dimensions of wisdom as they are delineated in Jewish sources from the Persian, Hellenistic and early Roman eras. Considering a diverse body of texts beyond later canonical boundaries, the book demonstrates that wisdom features not as an abstract quality, but as something to be performed and exercised at both the individual and community level. The analysis specifically concentrates on notions of a 'wise' person, including the rise of the sage as an exemplary figure. It also looks at how ancestral figures and contemporary teachers are imagined to manifest and practice wisdom, and considers communal portraits of a wise and virtuous life. In so doing, the author demonstrates that the previous focus on wisdom as a category of literature has overshadowed significant questions related to wisdom, behaviour and social life. Jewish wisdom is also contextualized in relation to its wider ancient Mediterranean milieu, making the book valuable for biblical scholars, classicists, scholars of religion and the ancient Near East and theologians.

In his Treatise on the Virtues, Aquinas discusses the character and function of habit; the essence, subject, cause, and meaning of virtue; and the separate intellectual, moral, cardinal, and theological virtues. His work constitutes one of the most thorough and incisive accounts of virtue in the history of Christian philosophy. John Oesterle's accurate and elegant translation makes this enduring work readily accessible to the modern reader.

Writers of church and mission history have devoted very few pages to George Liele's ministry and most mentions ignore the global nature of his pioneer work, international influence, intelligence, and legacy. He launched a mission movement that reached from Georgia to Jamaica and from Jamaica to Sierra Leone and Nova Scotia-all before the pioneer work of William Carey, Adoniram Judson, Richard Allen, and Lott Cary. Beginning as a slave preacher, Liele learned the Baptist story and theology-a message he preached in South Carolina, Georgia, and Jamaica. In providing a comprehensive introduction to Liele's life and work, this book draws readers into identifying with Liele and those who lived through a difficult historic period and who in the process developed a theology that guided them through the challenges of being a Christian leader in a slave society. The Christian movement has always been greater than any individual or local church community has imagined it to be. In Liele's time, key leaders among the "white" church enabled a gifted person like Liele, despite his slavery, to develop his faith and leadership among blacks and whites, in spite of the perils of slavery. Liele was an organiser, mentor, church and school founder, an abolitionist, and a master negotiator. His roles have been documented by other scholars, but largely as footnotes or a tiny part of their analysis. Approaching the many parts of Liele's life and legacy globally, theologically, and historically, this book is the byproduct of a collaboration of scholars and historians who share the belief that George Liele is truly an unsung hero and one whose leadership and journey needs to be recognized at this particular time in history. Those reading these perspectives on Liele will find new truths about Christian ministry and missions.