Fr. Reardon's New Book: Wise Lives

Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon has a new book out from Conciliar Press, Wise Lives: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Wisdom of Sirach.

Although it is found in every major extant Christian manuscript of the Old Testament, the later exclusion of the Wisdom of Sirach (also known as Ecclesiasticus) from the Protestant canon has made it one of the little-known gems of Holy Scripture. Composed in Hebrew and translated into Greek in the second century before Christ, it is among the last books of the Old Testament. Sirach represents the more primitive and conservative aspect of Israel's Wisdom tradition-the practical application of the fear of God to daily life-but he enhances that tradition by a singular attention to biography and historical literature in the shaping of the soul. In short, Wise Lives. Sirach's social context-the struggle to preserve the Jewish religion and culture against the corrosive influence of Hellenic paganism-will resonate with Christians living in the secular world today. In this commentary, Fr. Patrick Reardon illustrates for contemporary readers the riches of this often-neglected jewel of the Bible.

It is available at Amazon.

Comments

[P H Reardon]

"Although it is found in every major extant Christian manuscript of the Old Testament," says the back cover of this book about Sirach.

Not entirely true. In one very important Christian manuscript, Sirach is found in the New Testament!

[Tony Esolen]

Ecclesiasticus also has the distinction of being the one book of the Bible that Shakespeare most frequently alludes to. And, despite what the secularists say about the Bard, he is far more "theological" in his language and his preoccupations than is any other playwright of the late Elizabethan or early Stuart periods -- and that includes the glittering and shallow Kit Marlowe. But Shakespeare seems to have been especially fond of the Bible's wisdom literature, in Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiasticus; also of the words of Jesus in the synoptics.