Review of An Obituary for "Wisdom Literature" by Will Kynes

In his Obituary for “Wisdom Literature,” Will Kynes makes a provocative and persuasive case for abandoning the concept of a distinct canonical corpus centered on Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job. His title, dramatic though it sounds, is no clickbait. Using sound historical detective-work, modern genre theory, and a compelling intertextual reading of the standard Wisdom texts, Kynes gives good reasons for concluding that the modern genre designation of “Wisdom Literature” is limiting or even distorting our reading of the Bible. Finding wisdom themes throughout the canon is not the problem; it is the rigid categorization of certain texts as one thing — Wisdom Literature — that flattens texts, slices up the canon, and cordons off scholarly sub-specialties.