Unsought Input

A student group of Atheists at University of Texas, San Antonio, have started a campaign which allows people to trade their bibles for pornographic magazines, such as Playboy and Penthouse. Their logic being that the bible is a very negative force in world history and porn would be more beneficial. They came up with this campaign as a creative way to exercise their freedom of speech. Obviously religious groups on campus were less than pleased with the idea. There are similarities here to my previous article in which a local church tried to use less conventional methods to attract new people. However, what the atheist group is doing is a little different.

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Of all the works of the Bible, Ecclesiastes stands out as the most profound, probably because it is unlike any other chapter in either the Old or the New Testament. Written post-Exile, likely composed by a single writer, it is the greatest of all wisdom literature. It distills the essence of a deeply Hebraic worldview, which is why I prefer to refer to it by its Hebrew name, Koheleth, which means roughly “speaker to an assembly.” What sets it apart from everything else in the Bible is its focus on mortality and the struggle of the here and now, rather than the otherworldly paradise to come. It preaches what are essentially pagan concepts, having more in common with the Stoics in many parts than with the early Jews or nascent Christians, although it is at its core a Jewish work. The writing is evocative and sonorous in the King James translation; a worthy rendering of what are universal truths orated by an idiosyncratic personality. I want to gesture at why Koheleth is one of the most important pieces of writing ever set down and why it remains a personal touchstone for my own life.

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