Theological Bites
It is my understanding that every book of the Bible addresses a particular theological aspect and it is the role of the readers to investigate that theological theme. The book of Ecclesiastes addresses the issue of life.
Recently at our fellowship, Peter, the moderator of the Social Talk Social Show asked me what life is? My answer was that; life is a mess and living is a continuous fixing of the mess. After that answer, everyone at the fellowship tagged me as a pessimist and one with a negative view of life. Let me ask you if you were asked the same question, how would you define life? The Qoheleth in Ecclesiastes attempts the same question and we have the book of Ecclesiastes as an attempt on the theology of life and living.
The writer relates his experiences of life and draws lessons for us. We are fortunate for his unfortunate life. The man who writes Ecclesiastes is an old experienced teacher who has not learnt from other people’s experience but from his. There is nothing as wrong in life as being the specimen in your own laboratory of life. As a single parent, I have always warned people (adult-youth) at church about the danger of single parenting. My aim is for those who haven’t fallen victim yet to learn from us single parents and avoid our mistakes/predicaments rather than learning within the situation.
The logic of ‘self’ in its sociology is to ensure it is not ‘the teaching aid’ but ‘the student.’ The writer of Ecclesiastes presents himself as a teaching aid to all of us.
The Qoheleth makes two conclusions about life, the first is that “Life is vanity” and the second is that there is nothing “under the sun” that is capable of giving meaning to life. Even if some level of fulfilment or self-satisfaction were achieved, death is waiting at the end and even before even death strikes, there is equally no joy in poverty as there isn’t joy in being rich.
Frustration and adversity are unavoidable even amidst success, and answers to the hard questions of life are not forthcoming. However, in his conclusion he says;
“Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into Judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).
One of the major uniqueness of Ecclesiastes from other books in the Bible is that the book largely communicates the human point of view and not the divine perspective on matters. It is us (people not God) speaking and most of us, if we are honest, can relate to majority of the conclusions like the following:.
THE 6 ISMs
The book of Ecclesiastes in its endeavour to explain life implies six ISMs in its scattered verses that actually can help us understand how life is viewed by many people in the world even today. I have to, however, mention that these ISMs are not just a wrong way of looking at life but a dangerous way of living as well. We do well to list them here:
Fatalism:
“Everything has already been decided. It was known long ago what each person would be. So there’s no use arguing with God about your destiny.” (Ecclesiastes 6:10 NLT).
The preacher presents the first view of life and that is fatalism. This is the belief that ‘WHAT WILL BE WILL BE’ and therefore no matter what you do to change it, you won’t succeed. This is a life of determinism. Theists with a fatalistic attitude will tell you that what God has predetermined will happen regardless of what you do. For such believers, heaven and hell are fated.
James Wong Glen Morgan and Jeffery Reddick wrote a script of a horror movie known as Final Destination, in which the key argument is that ‘you can’t cheat death.’ Fatalism argues that none of us survives an accident, for if you didn’t die where everyone died it was because you weren’t meant to die. Some people are destined and predetermined to be rich while others will die poor regardless of what they do.
Fatalism is almost an irreversible spell on someone. Many people today, look at life this way. It interesting to note that, the Bible addressed this attitude to life.
Existentialism:
In Ecclesiastes chapter 9:9-10, 12 the preacher said:
“Life is short, and you love your wife, so enjoy being with her. This is what you are supposed to do as you struggle through life on this earth. 10 Work hard at whatever you do. You will soon go to the world of the dead, where no one works or thinks or reasons or knows anything. one of us knows when we might fall victim to a sudden disaster and find ourselves like fish in a net or birds in a trap.”
The crown argument here is ‘LIVE FOR TODAY’. Existentialism argues that existence precedes essence and in the time man exists, he must utilize that moment at the expense of the time he isn’t in.
Life is short, live your life to the fullest today, you don’t know what tomorrow brings. This is a philosophical view of life that says, ‘life is what you make it’. It is a philosophy that exercises individual existence (individualism), freedom (read liberty) and choice, and creates the capacity to define their own meaning of life amidst those other meanings that don’t work for them.
In the book of Ecclesiastes, life is what it is in ‘the today’ and has nothing to do with the past or present. To many people, both the beauty and the bitterness of life is determined in the now. This is another ISM of life in the world today as it is demonstrated in the Bible.
Hedonism:
Another ISM is found in the following statements,
“So I commend the enjoyment of life because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun“. (Ecclesiastes 8:15 NIV)
“There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of God”. (Ecclesiastes 2:24 ASV).
The meaning of life to some does not go below or beyond ‘Pleasure’. Hedonism is the belief that Pleasure is the primary and most important pursuit of a worthy life. What you eat and drink, the pleasure you take in life is what life is about. Life is the pursuit of happiness. Life equals enjoyment. Under this understanding of life, life is doing and being what you want, when you want, how and with whom you want, wherever you want.
Chauvinism:
While I was still searching but not finding, I found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them all. (Ecclesiastes 7:28 NIV).
Scope of the meaning of the term chauvinism has a history that suggests that there was a man named Nicolas Chauvin of Rochefort who fought by the side of Napoleon and exhibited excessive and aggressive patriotism. The term meant that then until it gradually evolved broader to mean; ‘excessive or prejudiced support for one’s own cause, group, or sex’. As a characteristic of language, the word narrowed to mean, ‘a man who believes that men are superior to women’. Some of us have probably heard of the term ‘a male chauvinist pig.
It looks like the speaker in Ecclesiastes is not a chauvinist in just the narrow sense but also in the broader sense of life.
Life is appreciated in the lens group, class, gender etc. Life is life under uniforms and life isn’t fulfilled in diversities. His perspective of an ideal life is that where women are not part of. There are people in this world whose perspective of life is an exclusive patriotism. It is a life of boundaries and borders, where living a meaningful is tied to the gender, social status, tribe, and race of those around you.
Cynicism:
“So don’t be too good or too wise! Why destroy yourself?” (Ecclesiastes 7:16 NLT).
Life under this ISM is not inquisitive but sceptical. It is a life that confirms what is good, establishes that it is wisdom, but casts a doubt. Long before Jesus came, the stoics lived a life not of just questioning but that of doubt. Doubting even what has been by all standards approved as good and right.
To understand the life of a cynic let me share with you the words of Lisa Firestone PhD,
“Cynicism is part of a defensive posture we take to protect ourselves. It’s typically triggered when we feel hurt by or angry at something, and instead of dealing with those emotions directly, we allow them to fester and skew our outlook. When we grow cynical toward one thing in our lives, we may slowly start to turn on everything. Many of our cynical emotions arise when we are feeling vulnerable.
In moments when we are feeling open and are let down, we are far more likely to react by toughening up and becoming defensive. A heightened susceptibility to cynicism can be a sure sign that we’re turned on ourselves. When we enter this state of mind, we are often viewing those around us through the same critical filter through which we see ourselves.”
Cynicism is not suspecting a known evil doing good, but rather it is doubting a known good while it is doing good. Because at one point in life what was good had a wrong ending. Many today, are stoics and live a cynical life.
Pessimism:
“Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!” (Ecclesiastes 1:2 NLT).
The term Pessimism is a combination of two Latin words; the word pessimus, which can be translated as “very bad”, and on the other, the suffix –ism, which is equivalent to “conduct.” It is the propensity to judge things by their most unfavourable or negative aspect. This concept is the opposite of optimism, which consists of analyzing situations from a more favourable dimension. Pessimism differs from cynicism in this sense; the latter suspects its credible establishment while the former anticipates the worst in every situation.
The preacher rounds-up life to be meaningless and he mentions this 38 times throughout the 12 chapters. This is the human view of life and we now remain with the responsibility to identify a counter view in the same book. The question we are to continue asking is: DOES GOD SEE LIFE ON EARTH AS WE SEE IT? Does he appreciate it in these ISMs as most of us do? We will attempt these questions next.
God bless you I invoke TRUTH, REASON and FAITH (2Tim 2:7)
Priest Isaiah White (+256-793 822833 for further inquiries)
iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24)
@Think & Become
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