Overview of orientation, disorientation and re-orientation
There are rhythms and season of our life in this world. Our life is about movement between orientation, disorientation, and re-orientation. Recognizing there are different places we may be in it will help us to fit into this contemporary world. Later in the session, we will have a group discussion looking into different chapters in Ecclesiastes on orientation, disorientation, and re-orientation.
Orientation: There are human life experiences in which everything makes sense in our lives. In Ecclesiastes it will be the traditional wisdom. It may be about wisdom in which we consider as important or truth. These are the places of orientation. For example, in 1:15 it says, “what is …show more content…
We can look at these as Qohelet is going through individual orientation, disorientation and reorientation. Therefore, he presents different views in the book. I will use the pendulum illustration to describe the contradictions. Sometimes Qohelet comment is very pessimistic as in 1:1 and is like the pendulum swings to one extreme. However, in other passage Qohelet’s comment is very optimistic as in 9:7 talking about enjoy life. It seems like the pendulum swings to the other extreme. The right path should be in the middle. That is to fear God and walk the path of him. Murphy’s axiom that says that “every gnomic saying needs a balancing corrective.” In order words, we need both aspects to complete a fuller truth. As Leung Lai mentions that we aim not at harmonizing or minimizing the tensions but at exploring ways of embracing the coexisting tensions. We have seen in Chapter 2, 3 and 5 above Qohelet is also embracing the tensions. However, at the overall conclusion of the book Qohelet stops at disorientation in 12:8. The epilogist is maintaining a healthy tension here by agreeing with Qohelet and at the same time directing the readers to God. He is moving to
There are rhythms and season of our life in this world. Our life is about movement between orientation, disorientation, and re-orientation. Recognizing there are different places we may be in it will help us to fit into this contemporary world. Later in the session, we will have a group discussion looking into different chapters in Ecclesiastes on orientation, disorientation, and re-orientation.
Orientation: There are human life experiences in which everything makes sense in our lives. In Ecclesiastes it will be the traditional wisdom. It may be about wisdom in which we consider as important or truth. These are the places of orientation. For example, in 1:15 it says, “what is …show more content…
We can look at these as Qohelet is going through individual orientation, disorientation and reorientation. Therefore, he presents different views in the book. I will use the pendulum illustration to describe the contradictions. Sometimes Qohelet comment is very pessimistic as in 1:1 and is like the pendulum swings to one extreme. However, in other passage Qohelet’s comment is very optimistic as in 9:7 talking about enjoy life. It seems like the pendulum swings to the other extreme. The right path should be in the middle. That is to fear God and walk the path of him. Murphy’s axiom that says that “every gnomic saying needs a balancing corrective.” In order words, we need both aspects to complete a fuller truth. As Leung Lai mentions that we aim not at harmonizing or minimizing the tensions but at exploring ways of embracing the coexisting tensions. We have seen in Chapter 2, 3 and 5 above Qohelet is also embracing the tensions. However, at the overall conclusion of the book Qohelet stops at disorientation in 12:8. The epilogist is maintaining a healthy tension here by agreeing with Qohelet and at the same time directing the readers to God. He is moving to