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Georg Lukács, the philosopher and literary critic, and Thomas Mann, the creative artist were two towering figures in the twentieth-century European intellectual life. Although they enjoyed a fruitful literary relationship, the two men never established an intimate friendship. In fact, Lukács once said that the only “dark spot” and “unsolved mystery” in his life was Mann’s life-long unresponsiveness to him as a bad person. Based primarily on Lukács, Katja Mann, Ernst Bloch, Arnold Hauser, and others, Part I of this study traces the development of “spiritual-intellectual symbiosis” between Lukács and Mann that lasted at least until the First World War. Part 2 turns to the question of the inspirational sources for Mann’s fictional characters, Leo Naphta, in his novel The Magic Mountain. Exploring the claim that Lukács himself was the model for his protagonist, Judith Marcus looks at the “Jewish intellectual” as an ideal type throughout Mann’s oeuvre. She concludes that Naphta’s totalitarian personality was inspired by the radicalism, rigidity, dogmatism, and asceticism of the young, then non-Marxist Lukács, and that is was in part these very traits in Lukács that stymied the growth of personal intimacy between the two men.

Gerhard von Rad's study of biblical wisdom literature in Weisheit in Israel (1970) is widely regarded as one of the most important studies in the field of ancient Israelite wisdom literature. More than fifty years later, contributors to Gerhard von Rad and the Study of Wisdom Literature reevaluate the significance and shortcomings of the late scholar's work and engage new methods and directions for wisdom studies today. Contributors include George J. Brooke, Ariel Feldman, Edward L. Greenstein, Arthur Jan Keefer, Jennifer L. Koosed, Will Kynes, Christl M. Maier, Timothy J. Sandoval, Bernd U. Schipper, Mark Sneed, Hermann Spieckermann, Anne W. Stewart, Raymond C. Van Leeuwen, Stuart Weeks, and Benjamin G. Wright III. This collection of essays is essential reading not only for specialists in wisdom studies but also for scholars and advanced students of the Hebrew Bible in general.