Wisdom as Performance: A Dialogue Between the Chinese, Greek and Biblical Traditions

This contribution suggests that we understand “wisdom systems” as open categories that unfold their meaning and relevance only when they are reworked and understood anew. Specifically, the three wisdom traditions discussed in this essay were primarily interested in shaping an inner attitude that would escape all attempts at codifying and encapsulating its tenets. “Wisdom” in the Biblical narrative was seen as a “place of confluence”, a path that develops its course throughout the upheavals of history, allowing for a dialogic encounter among people and cultures, as well as between human and divine languages. Chinese Wisdom was locating itself at the point of passage between the solid and the fluid; the prevalence of aquatic metaphors in its stories and rhetoric suggests that it did not pretend to possess a core teaching but that it was rather evolving and bottomless. As to Greek Wisdom, Pierre Hadot and other authors have insisted on the fact that it was first a set of “spiritual exercises” aimed at the healing of the soul. Such analyses help us to consider the performative dimension of different wisdom traditions: till today, the way we allow for their encounter and their interplay enables us to tap into their resources for ensuring the sustainability of our communities.