The preacher is the English translation of the Greek, Ecclesiastes. The Hebrew word has to do with gathering an assembly. The theme of the book is the vanity of life. All that makes up life soon vanishes and loses significance. The phrase, under the sun, is recurrent in the book. The author proceeds to recount how all man’s business is pointless- at least so far as can be observed under the sun. The use of season implies that moments of life enumerated in the poem with concise beauty are fixed in an unchangeable way for which God is responsible. The author has faith in the meaning of the totality of things under God. However, he is skeptical of any human claim to state that meaning. Human wisdom can discern no order or pattern. Is this not the role of mathematicians and scientists who chip away at the pattern with hints from the Divine? The author further claims that human life is no different from that of the beasts in its meaninglessness. In fact, what takes place makes death desirable. Victor Frankl’s book, In Search of Meaning comes to mind. He would agree with the author in that hopelessness does arise in humans when we realize that we control virtually nothing in our lives. However, Frankl points out that there is one thing over which we have total control- our attitude. With a hopeful attitude directed toward meaning and purpose we can survive anything. With such an attitude he survived the Holocaust.
The preacher is the English translation of the Greek, Ecclesiastes. The Hebrew word has to do with gathering an assembly. The theme of the book is the vanity of life. All that makes up life soon vanishes and loses significance. The phrase, under the sun, is recurrent in the book. The author proceeds to recount how all man’s business is pointless- at least so far as can be observed under the sun. The use of season implies that moments of life enumerated in the poem with concise beauty are fixed in an unchangeable way for which God is responsible. The author has faith in the meaning of the totality of things under God. However, he is skeptical of any human claim to state that meaning. Human wisdom can discern no order or pattern. Is this not the role of mathematicians and scientists who chip away at the pattern with hints from the Divine? The author further claims that human life is no different from that of the beasts in its meaninglessness. In fact, what takes place makes death desirable. Victor Frankl’s book, In Search of Meaning comes to mind. He would agree with the author in that hopelessness does arise in humans when we realize that we control virtually nothing in our lives. However, Frankl points out that there is one thing over which we have total control- our attitude. With a hopeful attitude directed toward meaning and purpose we can survive anything. With such an attitude he survived the Holocaust.
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