On the heels of many provocative works comes yet another from the prolific pen of French scholar Jacques Ellul. In reason for being Ellul offers an exposition of the three intertwining themes of Ecclesiastes: vanity, wisdom, and God. While interacting with recent scholarship, Ellul presents a unique interpretation and contemporary application of "the profound and paradoxical Qohelet."
Examining specific passages in his development of the three general themes, Ellul considers theological, philosophical, and literary aspects of the text and asserts his own opinion on the book's place in Scripture and the gospel. Ellul's treatment of the book's irony and paradoxes, an often problematic matter which he sees as the key to understanding Ecclesiastes, sheds valuable light on the book as well as on life itself.
Jacques Ellul was a French philosopher, law professor, sociologist, lay theologian, and Christian anarchist. He wrote several books about the "technological society" and the intersection between Christianity and politics, such as Anarchy and Christianity (1991)--arguing that anarchism and Christianity are socially following the same goal.
A philosopher who approached technology from a deterministic viewpoint, Ellul, professor at the University of Bordeaux, authored 58 books and more than a thousand articles over his lifetime, the dominant theme of which has been the threat to human freedom and Christian faith created by modern technology. His constant concern has been the emergence of a "technological tyranny" over humanity. As a philosopher and lay theologian, he further explored the religiosity of the technological society.
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