Dinh Anh Nhue NGUYEN, OFM Conv., Gesù il saggio di Dio e la Sapienza divina. Indagine biblico-teologica introduttiva per ripensare la cristologia sapienziale nei vangeli sinotti. Rome: Casa Editrice Miscellania Francescana. 2017. ISBN 978-88-87931-64-8. Pp. 512. €32.00. Reviewed by Peter C. PHAN, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. 20057.

This is the fruit of a decade of intense research by a Vietnamese Franciscan, currently the Dean of the Pontifical Faculty of Theology of St. Bonaventure in Rome (the Seraphicum). The subject of the monograph is the Wisdom Christology in the Synoptic Gospels. In spite of its size and the number of years dedicated to its composition, Nguyen characterizes his work as “introductory” in recognition of the fact that there has been in recent years an avalanche of publications on the historical Jesus that has prompted John P. Meier, a prolific New Testament scholar, to quip that a fitting penance for a Buddhist sinner is to spend three reincarnations perusing them!

The book is divided in five chapters. The first introduces the theme  of Wisdom Christology by looking at Jesus as more-than-Solomon and in the Jewish wisdom tradition. The second studies Jesus as the Sage in his actions. The third examines Jesus the Sage as disclosed in his sayings. The fourth presents a biblico-theological synthesis on Jesus as divine Wisdom in the synoptic Gospels. The fifth, a very short conclusion, contains suggestions to rethink Wisdom Christology. The book ends with a thirty-page bibliography.

In the first chapter Nguyen examines Jesus’ claim to be “greater than Solomon” and the Jewish expectation during Jesus’ time for the coming of the Sage of God, of the personified Wisdom of God, and of the wise Messiah. The second chapter analyses Jesus’ actions under three headings, namely, praying, teaching, and performing miracles. In all these actions Jesus behaves like a Jewish sage and at the same time, as a nonconformist and an antisage, breaks the expected norms concerning the Jewish sage. The third chapter examines some nine sayings of Jesus that are relevant to wisdom and his parables, which shows that Jesus is the new Sage calling all to be sages by putting his teachings into practice. Chapter Four argues that in Q and the Synoptic Gospels, from Q to Mark to Luke and to Matthew, there is a theological evolution from asserting that Jesus is the messianic Sage to confessing that Jesus is divine Wisdom in person.

Nguyen’s monograph is a work of the highest biblical scholarship. Meticulous and thorough, the book is logically organized, its major theses persuasively argued, and its Italian fluent and attractive. He has shown that a Christology “from below,” based on the historical Jesus (Jesus as the Sage in Chapters Two and Three) can be a foundation for a high Christology (Jesus as divine Wisdom in Chapter Four). Nguyen is much aware that this Christology can be a source for a fruitful inculturation of the Christian faith in Asia, where the figure of the Sage is deeply revered. But that is another book for another time. For now, this book is a model for how biblical theology should be done, where the highest standards of scholarship are made to serve Christian spirituality.