To everything there is a season... even a season for gaining an appreciation of the odd little book of Ecclesiastes. Maybe middle age is precisely that season. Overcoming our own initial biases against Ecclesiastes, which is the ultimate inkblot test within the canon of Scripture, we place the Preacher in historical context as a template for taking the ancient wisdom of Israel's faith into radically different contexts. More relevant and less existentialist-nihilist than you thought!

Notes:

1. Of course you know "Turn, Turn, Turn" by the Byrds

2. Check out Dad's article in Word & World (Winter 2023), "Luther on Ecclesiastes: Nature in the Light of Grace" and Luther's commentary in LW 15

3. Lohfink, Qoheleth

4. Scott, Proverbs–Ecclesiastes

5. Brueggemann, Theology of the Old Testament

6. Treier, Ecclesiastes (Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible)

7. Adams, Christ and Horrors

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