Can I admit something…? I used to think that being somewhere chic with lots of room service and Christian Liaigre furniture makes you happy. It doesn’t.…That’s why you see all those paparazzi pics of celebrities hanging out of the backs of yachts, or leaving the lobbies of gorgeous apartment blocks looking like they’re off to commit suicide.…
—Plum Sykes, Bergdorf Blondes

Ecclesiastes’ narrative section (2:1–11) is perhaps the most accessible and best-known part of this challenging work, the diary of Solomon’s great happiness experiment.

Some scholars have doubted Solomon’s authorship of Ecclesiastes (1:1) and his historicity as monarch of a golden age (1 Kings 1–11), though others offer solid linguistic and archaeological replies.1 So the hardest thing to believe about Ecclesiastes may be its message: What, the good life cannot satisfy us humans without spirituality?

Sure, Grandma told us, "Money can’t buy happiness," but did Grandma know where to shop? Today, with advertising millions spent persuading us Product X makes us happier, Solomon can sound like an aging Baby Boomer who partied with stars, took all the drugs, and is now a post-rehab vegan offering "less is more" advice he rarely used. Yet could the secular materialistic values he debunks—the religion of Marketing—be the greatest challenge to Christian evangelism and discipleship?

In The High Cost of Materialism, Tim Kasser summarizes a decade of psychological research showing that materialistic attitudes are associated with anxiety and depression, and less energy and self-actualization.2 In relationships, more materialistic people are less into appreciation, helping, loyalty, responsibility, honesty, forgiveness, understanding, generosity, intimacy, and quality time. Kasser’s conclusion: "The more materialistic values are at the center of our lives, the more our quality of life is diminished." I was shocked by the book’s measures of materialism, examining how much you feel possessions represent success in life, how central materialism is to your desires, and how much you think money can buy happiness. The shock was how high I scored.

Yet many people sense Qoheleth’s (the Teacher’s) point intuitively. I’ve found on secular campuses that postmoderns appreciate its experimental approach to life, its questions and personal hypotheses rather than preachiness. Later on, we can talk about the hard evidence of fulfilled prophecy in Daniel, which is great "objective apologetics," but sometimes on the first conversation it’s simpler to find heart evidence by asking, "Have you ever felt like that about your life?" ("subjective apologetics").3 And generally it’s the more affluent, high-functioning person who describes having felt that hunger. The poorer, aspirational person still hopes that more achievement will deliver satisfaction eventually. Yet Paris Hilton acknowledges, "most rich people want something that they can’t have."4

After his grand lifestyle experiment, Solomon returns (v.11) to the key thematic statements introduced in the overture (1:1, 2), and recurring throughout:

• Vanity or meaningless (Hebrew hebel), literally "breath," includes ideas of being temporary, transitory, ephemeral (esp 11:10). It can also suggest empty, pointless, and even surreal.
• "Under the sun" seems to connote life lived as though things under the sun were all we have. In today’s terms, secular.
• Profit. A commercial word, meaning what’s left over when you subtract the cost from the benefit. What’s life’s bottom line?

Spotting these words helps us follow the structure of this complicated work of literature and unpack its message. Some scholars have struggled with how the pessimistic sections of Ecclesiastes could be part of a work of faith. Yet this is "pessimism with an evangelistic purpose," biting sketches calculated to warn money-rich, knowledge-rich, meaning-poor readers of the limits of hedonism for human happiness "under the sun" (that is, without God).5 Christian apologists use similar tactics: Paul demolished arguments (2 Cor. 10:5); Francis Schaeffer emphasized removing the roof timbers of secular worldviews so people see they are holey and offer no shelter; Ravi Zacharias tactically shows a god-free philosophy to be unlivable. So Ecclesiastes "defends the life of faith in a generous God by pointing to the grimness of the alternative."6

In biblical history, Solomon’s reign brought Israel the wealth and worldwide learning of empire. Solomon was initially enthusiastic about making his faith the talk of the world, using Israel’s strategic location on key trade routes for faith-sharing purposes. Yet 1 Kings describes him sliding into greed and conspicuous consumption (10:26–29; compare Deut. 17:14–20); religious tolerance that turned into relativism (11:1–8); arms dealing (10:26–29); and sleaze culture replacing real love (11:1–3; compare Song of Solomon). (Any contemporary relevance there?) For a target audience badly influenced by his midlife example, Solomon slams home the utter futility of life without God.

In Useless Beauty: Ecclesiastes through the Lens of Contemporary Film, Robert K. Johnston finds similar themes in films like American Beauty, a tragicomic exposé of contemporary hebel: "We used to be happy."7 The film depicts a plastic bag dancing randomly on air currents, a similar motif to "chasing the wind" in Ecclesiastes. Yet the film softens the punch by having the main character narrate the story from a universalistic afterlife, whereas Ecclesiastes stares honestly down the barrel of death (2:12–17).

If death is the last word, then all work and achievement are as lasting as ice sculptures, the happiest story ends with tragedy, and the wisest life is trumped by non-existence (2:17–23). Against such crushing loss and nihilism, Solomon wheels on a solution: Knowing God can bring satisfaction to ordinary life (2:24–26). This is not yet a complete solution or grand dogmatic philosophy, but an experiential finding, humbly expressed. (This type of experiential, inductive reasoning is brilliant contemporary witnessing strategy.)

And this problem-solution structure runs through Ecclesiastes: depict a problem experienced in secular life "under the sun," then introduce God as the beginning of a solution. The solutions are not simplistically positive (unlike the Disneyified testimonials of some contemporary evangelism), but they credibly demonstrate how a religious search provides at least partial answers in life. And they seem to become more positive and definite as the experiment progresses.8

Ecclesiastes can function as pre-evangelism, the salty pretzel increasing one’s thirst for the "life and immortality" revealed by the gospel of Jesus (2 Tim. 1:10).

Visit Spectrum’s Message Board for an ongoing discussion of this quarter’s subject, "Ecclesiastes"

Notes

1. The Hebrew word Qoheleth (collector, assembler, convenor; KJV "preacher," NIV "teacher") is the title of the book and its main character ("I, Qoheleth," 1:12). The text itself identified Qoheleth as "son of David, King in Jerusalem" (1:2; see also 1:12) and "wise" (12:9), a word associated with Solomon (1 Kings 4:29–34). The closely-related noun qahal is used repeatedly in the story of Solomon assembling Israel for worship during the blessing of the temple, probably his finest hour (1 Kings 8:14, 22, 55, 65). The verb qahal includes convening the people for religious or civil assemblies. See R. Laird Harris, ed., Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1981). For linguistic and archaeological replies, see Ian Young, Diversity in Pre-Exilic Hebrew (Tübingen: Mohr [Siebeck], 1993); D. C. Fredericks, Qoheleth’s Language (Lewiston, NY: Mellen, 1988); Kenneth A. Kitchen, "The Empire Strikes Back—Saul, David and Solomon," in On the Reliability of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2003), and, "The Controlling Role of External Evidence in Assessing the Historical Status of the Israelite United Monarchy," in Windows into Old Testament History: Evidence, Argument and the Crisis of "Biblical Israel," V. Philips Long, David W. Baker, and Gordon J. Wenham, eds, (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2002).
2. Tim Kasser, The High Price of Materialism (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2002).
3. In regard to Daniel, apologetics is making a reasoned case for something, in this case Christianity.
4. Paris Hilton with Merle Ginsberg, Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-Chic Peek Behind the Pose (Sydney: Random House, 2004), 8.
5. Michael A. Eaton, Ecclesiastes (Leicester: InterVarsity Press, 1983), 37.
6. Ibid., 44.
7. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2004.
8. R. N. Whybray sees seven negative sections answered by positive rebuttals that ascend in certainty. Ecclesiastes (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1989), 64.

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