Books on the Book of Ecclesiastes

Two Sundays ago I preached my last sermon in our seven part series on Ecclesiastes. I found it interesting as I was working through this challenging book to note the number of other churches that were exploring Ecclesiastes at the same time as me. My parents' church in London had finished a series on Ecclesiastes just before I began mine; my brother's church in Michigan started a series on Ecclesiastes while I was still in the middle of mine; and a friend's church in Coburg was also working on Ecclesiastes at the same time as me. I've mentioned before how poignant and relevant I've found this book; it would seem it's been speaking in similar ways to a number of other churches.

For posterity's sake, I thought I'd share a few quick notes on the commentaries and resources I used in preparing this series.

Ecclesiastes:  Why Everything Matters, Philip Graham Ryken

This book was a bit of a disappointment to me.  Misunderstanding the series title ("Preaching the Word"), I purchased it assuming I was getting a pulpit commentary that would help me do just that (i.e. preach the Word).  Instead, Philip Ryken's book read like an extended series of sermons on the book of Ecclesiastes, which is precisely, I think, what it was meant to be.  It wasn't an entire waste, of course, inasmuch as seeing how other preachers have tackled specific texts is informative, illuminating and inspiring; and there were some insights here that helped me in my own sermon prep.  Overall, however, it had neither the depth nor breadth I was hoping for when I added it to the list of sermon resources.

A Time to Tear Down and A Time to Build Up,  Michael v. Fox.

What Everything Matters lacked in depth, A Time to Tear Down more than compensated for.  This fresh, erudite, creative and scholarly study of Ecclesiastes is, in my opinion, must-read material for anyone wanting to go deep with this book.  Fox's discussion of hebel-- and the sophistication with which he compares it to Albert Camus' existentialist absurdity-- takes you to the heart of Ecclesiastes like no other book I encountered. And his work with the other major themes leave you feeling like you've really met the Teacher.  His commentary section, too, is thorough and thoughtful.  I drank especially deep draughts of this commentary for Sermon 1 and Sermon 3 in my series.

Preaching Christ from Ecclesiastes, Sidney Greidanus.

I've read a couple of other books by Sidney Greidanus, and his approach to Christ-centred, expository preaching has deeply impacted me.  Especially his Preaching Christ from the Old Testament left a lasting mark on my own approach to preaching Old Testament texts, and from him I learned to appreciate the homiletical dictum:  "Preachers turn Grace into Law whenever we present anthropocentric imperatives without the divine indicative."  This book reads like an extended application of his previous work, and I found it very helpful.  In the introduction he tells a story about preaching a painstakingly researched sermon on Ecclesiastes early in his preaching ministry.  A seasoned pastor who was in the congregation approached him after and said:  "Good sermon, pastor, but I'm wondering, could a Rabbi in a Synagogue have preached it just as easily?"  This set him on a quest to uncover what it is about Christian preaching of the Old Testament that makes it especially Christian.  Besides the treasure trove of exegetical insights it provided me, I found this commentary helpful as a point of reference in my own effort to keep my handling of this profound book Christ-centred.

Is this all there is to Life?  Answers from Ecclesiastes, Ray Steadman.

This devotional book was actually just sitting there on the shelf in our very limited church library, so I grabbed it early on in my research to get a popular-level view of Ecclesiastes.  Compared to Greidanus and Fox (and even Ryken), of course, the bones on this one seemed a little lean.  For the most part, it read like the loosely compiled sermon notes of a pastor's verse-by-verser on Ecclesiastes, which he simply bound and published after the fact.  But again, it was helpful to see where other preachers had gone with The Preacher, and part way through I realized I was reading Steadman more for moral support than exegetical insight.