Wisdom plays a key role in the Hebrew Bible, not least in the books traditionally regarded as wisdom literature, among them Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and some of the psalms. But in the church's use of the Hebrew Bible, wisdom is something of a poor relation compared to the law, the prophets and the psalms, especially given the importance it has for the New Testament's understanding of Christ as the word and wisdom of God. The call to ministry, the author believes, is the call to be, or become, wise ourselves, and to help others on their own journey of discovery as to what this means.

Stories in the Books of Genesis and Exodus tell of fathers whose sons are 'lost' to them through 'deaths' of various kinds. One is murdered. Another is abandoned. A third is supplanted. A fourth is betrayed. A fifth is taken for sacrifice. A sixth is forgotten about. A seventh is secreted away. Only one of these is lost through physical death; the others 'die' symbolically. But in their different ways all these sons are lost to their fathers, some for a time, some forever. And all of them develop the theme with which the biblical narrative begins: God's first son Adam who, by becoming 'lost'...