Overview

This is the first full-length study of Ecclesiastes using methods of philosophical exegesis, specifically those of the modern French philosophers Levinas and Blanchot. T. A. Perry opens up new horizons in the philosophical understanding of the Hebrew Bible, offering a series of meditations on its general spiritual outlook. Perry breaks down Ecclesiastes' motto 'all is vanity' and returns 'vanity' to its original concrete meaning of 'breath', the breath of life. This central and forgotten teaching of Ecclesiastes leads to new areas of breath research related both to environmentalism and breath control.

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9781107458444

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Reviews

'Tony Perry has done it again. Yet another path-clearing book that opens the Bible's wisdom literature to the philosophic mind and the literary ear, as well as to the text scholar's critical gaze and the human reader's searching heart. Perry has transformed received understandings of 'hebel/vanity' in ways that make Qohelet all the more central a guide to the contemporary - as well as the ancient - heart/mind.' Peter Ochs, Bronfman Professor of Modern Judaic Studies, University of Virginia '[Perry's] examination of Qohelet's enigmatic words in the company of an impressive gallery of thinkers from ancient to modern times is something of a tour de force in bending Ecclesiastes to the task of getting on with life. As a saying of [Perry's] own coinage states: 'OK, all is vanity/breath; now what's for supper?'. John Jarick, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament

Author Information

T. A. Perry is Professor of Comparative Literature (Emeritus) at the University of Connecticut. He has previously taught at Williams College, Smith College, Loyola University, Hebrew University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He is the author and editor of numerous books, including Wisdom Literature and the Structure of Proverbs, The Honeymoon is Over: Jonah's Argument with God, Erotic Spirituality: The Integrative Tradition from Leone Ebreo to John Donne, The Moral Proverbs of Santob de Carrion: Jewish Wisdom in Christian Spain, and God's Twilight Zone: Wisdom in the Hebrew Bible.

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