With summer vacation about to get underway for you in academe, you’ll be needing some summer reading. Tacitus recommends the Bible, especially the Book of Ecclesiastes:
Ecclesiastes has it all — Kierkegaardian reflection, Dostoevskian woe, ’80s-style excess, a strong central figure in the brooding Qoholeth, an easily-digestible episodic format, an endorsement of intellectualism, a strikingingly postmodern skepticism toward God, and of course a happy ending. But first comes the angst and the debauching. . . .
Now that’s entertainment. And, in all seriousness, a spirituality I can appreciate. I know it’s all the rage to be into Romans, with its impenetrable passages and baffling allusions; and of course Ezekiel has the UFOs. But I’m not one of the in crowd — give me Qoholeth.
Hmm. I’ll have to go re-read that one. Been some time since I delved into the Old Testament.
