Ecclesiastes and Inspiration
How does the book of Ecclesiastes impact your view of inspiration? I’ll be asking folks to think about this in my Sunday School class at First UMC of Pensacola as we study Ecclesiastes. What do you think?
Similar Posts
Link: James and Programmatic Skepticism
With a tip of my hat to James McGrath, I would like to call attention to this post by Jonathan Bernier. I think it brings up some rather important points. This is not an answer to your questions, but rather a bit of guidance in how one answers questions accurately. To quote: The critical historian is…
The simple answer is that it doesn’t affect my view of inspiration at all. It might do if I thought that inspiration meant that I could easily and trivially synthesise Ecclesiastes with, for instance, the Psalms of rejoicing (rather than those of lament) or the suggestions scattered throughout the New Testament that God will do loads of good things for the believer.
I’ve spent some of my life living psychologically in a Matt. 6 world and some living in an Ecclesiastes/Job world. The inspirations are appropriate to the situation in both cases.
Of course, Matt. 6:26ff and Ecclesiastes agree about living in the moment, even if they don’t agree about what might happen next. This isn’t a synthesis, though, it’s just advice which works independently of your situation.