"Far As The Curse Is Found" by William Price. A Review

 

Far as the Curse is Found: Ecclesiastes and the Man of Sorrows

William Price

ISBN: 9781098349967; ASIN : B08PZJTDYV; December 2020; Kindle: $9.99

 

I love working with wood. Whether it’s stripping down a limb to bare wood so I can make a cane, or refurbishing, repairing and repurposing older furniture pieces. Therefore, I was delighted when I opened up the brand new 170-page volume “Far as the Curse is Found: Ecclesiastes and the Man of Sorrows” and read, “Ecclesiastes is paint stripper for the soul” (xx and 99). William Price, a humble PhD and elder in the Presbyterian Church in America, has crafted a fine dossier on the feel, flow, and affect of the biblical book “Ecclesiastes”. It is written for young adults, seasoned disciples, and pastors to digest and relish. It’s a strong tonic, gently administered, that will leave readers reflecting on life, death, futility, and hope.

 

The volume is not a commentary. It is more an artful summarization of key themes and concepts in Ecclesiastes. Or, as the author states, “this work is an extended introduction addressing Ecclesiastes’ interpretive context and it’s application. (…) It is a frame around the art to highlight it and give it a home in our place and time” (xxi). If one reads it with this in mind, they will be deeply satisfied with how he approaches his subject and find that meditation and adoration are a regular result.

 

Price takes on several topics that arise from Qoheleth’s pen, works them around so that their paint-stripping potency take effect. For example, he applies himself to what the Preacher means by “vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” The author notes that it isn’t as the NIV translates it, meaninglessness of all things. Rather “Solomon’s point is not that life is meaningless or aimless but that we do not always achieve the ends we aim for, and when we do, they are transitory” (9). His thoughts in this book are the perfect ingredient to help us attain some sense of sober-mindedness.

 

Further, he makes the clever observation that the Hebrew word hevel is the same as Eve’s second son, Abel, and how these two go together in Ecclesiastes. The overarching point is that the writer of Ecclesiastes has fashioned a long, extensive reflection on Genesis 1-4, and how that grinds its way out in our life “under the sun.” In other words, “Solomon’s book is an assault on our senses. It describes a world we would not choose, a dying world, fallen from paradise, a creation in the clutches of the curse” (38). This means, then, that Ecclesiastes puts the lie to the myth of progress, and challenges our progressivist worldview, whether we’re “Conservative” progressivists or “Liberal” progressivists. “The simplest way to read Ecclesiastes is as the plain truth. It is a hard message to hear, the bad news told completely and well” (77).

 

But “Far as the Curse Is Found” is not utterly hopeless. And so, Price, in a beautiful surprise, brings Ecclesiastes up to brush shoulders with the Man of Sorrows, by using Charles Jennens’ libretto from Handel’s Messiah as the foil. The author plays out ten Christmas antiphons and shows how “Ecclesiastes is all about the Man of Sorrows” (96). This chapter was a surprising turn in the book that displays the artfulness of the author, and at this Christmas season, in this pandemic-pestered-death-struck Christmas season in 2020, sang sweetly to my soul!

 

“Far as the Curse is Found” is a beautiful reflection on a book that has troubled many. It is a strong medicine for a sick, sick world. This volume is a great Christmas gift. But it is an essential read for Christians of all stripes, especially at this time while we attempt to navigate safely between our Charybdis and Scylla, and when we need to evade the sirens’ call from the cliffs. I highly recommend the book.

 

My thanks to the author who asked my advice some years back as he was pulling together this material. But especially in thinking of me and gifting me a copy of this finished product which I have used for this review. Unbeknownst to the author, I have reviewed this book and present this analysis freely.

The profits from the sale of the book go to For The Children's Sake Foundation which i have supported for years.