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Ryan's Reviews > Three Philosophies of Life: Ecclesiastes—Life As Vanity, Job—Life As Suffering, Song of Songs—Life As Love
Three Philosophies of Life: Ecclesiastes—Life As Vanity, Job—Life As Suffering, Song of Songs—Life As Love
by Peter Kreeft
by Peter Kreeft
Outside of books of the Bible, this is one of only 2 "5-Star" Books I read in 2012. Peter Kreeft is a master and this commentary on Ecclesiastes, Job, and Song of Songs is phenomenal. Kreeft is known for saying that he recommends starting with Ecclesiastes as the first book to study in the Bible, because it presents the case for the pain of living in vanity when God is rejected. What is the meaning of life? While "The Preacher" in Ecclesiastes fails to answer that question, the rest of the Bible provides the answer.
Here is a gem from each of the commentaries.
From Ecclesiastes:
"Love, true love, agape, charity, total self-giving, is the one thing in this life under the sun that is 'stronger than death', that smells of eternity, that alone never gets boring, that is never exhausted, that becomes more fulfilling, not less, the more it is practiced. Love is infinite."
From Job:
"Feelings are not an infallible indicator of fact... A Pharisee can fell morally and spiritually healthy, when if fact he is so rotten that gentle Jesus calls him a tomb full of dead men's bones. A saint can be going through 'the dark night of the soul' and feel totally dried up inside, while in fact God is perfecting him like an artist perfecting his masterpiece."
From Song of Songs:
"If your concept of God lacks awe, circumspection, fear, and trembling, then your concept of love will also lack awe. Your soul is so small and arrogant that it feels comfortable and cuddly with God, then the only size love you will admit into your soul is a comfortable and cuddly love."
And one more, appropriate for today's social attempts to make-up a new reality about marriage:
"The fact that God spiritually impregnates us and not vice versa, the fact that God creates new life in us and not vice versa, and the fact that God comes into us and not vice versa, cannot be changed any more than the fact that a man impregnates a woman and not vice versa can be changed. No matter how much we rant and rave, we cannot change the essential, eternal laws of the very structure of reality to conform to our latest ideological fashions and fancies."
Here is a gem from each of the commentaries.
From Ecclesiastes:
"Love, true love, agape, charity, total self-giving, is the one thing in this life under the sun that is 'stronger than death', that smells of eternity, that alone never gets boring, that is never exhausted, that becomes more fulfilling, not less, the more it is practiced. Love is infinite."
From Job:
"Feelings are not an infallible indicator of fact... A Pharisee can fell morally and spiritually healthy, when if fact he is so rotten that gentle Jesus calls him a tomb full of dead men's bones. A saint can be going through 'the dark night of the soul' and feel totally dried up inside, while in fact God is perfecting him like an artist perfecting his masterpiece."
From Song of Songs:
"If your concept of God lacks awe, circumspection, fear, and trembling, then your concept of love will also lack awe. Your soul is so small and arrogant that it feels comfortable and cuddly with God, then the only size love you will admit into your soul is a comfortable and cuddly love."
And one more, appropriate for today's social attempts to make-up a new reality about marriage:
"The fact that God spiritually impregnates us and not vice versa, the fact that God creates new life in us and not vice versa, and the fact that God comes into us and not vice versa, cannot be changed any more than the fact that a man impregnates a woman and not vice versa can be changed. No matter how much we rant and rave, we cannot change the essential, eternal laws of the very structure of reality to conform to our latest ideological fashions and fancies."
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