Ecclesiastes presents itself as the words of Qoheleth — "the Preacher" or "the Assembler" — a son of David in Jerusalem. Whether Solomon himself or a later sage writing in his voice, the author addresses a community that had every reason to think life made tidy sense: temple, kingship, wisdom tradition, prosperity. Into that confidence he drops a hammer. The book is not despair; it is honesty placed under the fear of God. It is meant for readers who are already religious enough to need their illusions broken before their faith can become real.

From the writers we read together

David Berlinski

mathematician and philosopher, author of The Devil's Delusion

Berlinski is not a believer in any conventional sense, which makes him a useful witness here. His project has been to puncture the confidence of secular materialism — the assumption that science has filled in the meaning-shaped hole at the center of human life. He keeps pointing out that it has not. The hole is still there, and the people insisting it is not are usually the ones falling into it. Qoheleth made the same observation three thousand years earlier with one word: hevel.

What Berlinski's needling and Ecclesiastes share is a refusal to let us pretend. Strip away the religious veneer and the scientific veneer alike, and a human being is left holding a vapor and calling it a life. That is not a reason to despair; it is a reason to stop lying. Qoheleth will spend twelve chapters refusing to lie, and only at the end will he name the one thing that does not evaporate: fear God and keep his commandments. Berlinski clears the ground. The Preacher builds on it.