Not So Vain After All: Hannah Arendt’s Reception of Ecclesiastes
-
Phillip Michael Lasater
Abstract
Although Hannah Arendt only explicitly references the book of Ecclesiastes in order to contrast its views with her own, she and Qoheleth parallel each other on substantive issues. After showing how an influential translation of a key motif from Ecclesiastes led Arendt to misapprehend Qoheleth, this study unpacks their intellectual common ground on matters of affirming worldly life; the nature of action; and critical views of the human heart. Yet this third area which addresses human nature also highlights a divergence between them on how thinking relates to the problem of evil.
Acknowledgment
This paper has been enhanced and strengthened through collegial feedback. Sincere thanks, in alphabetical order, to John Kiess (Loyola University Maryland) for his comments on my treatment of Hannah Arendt, as well as for his input on current Arendt scholarship; and to Carol A. Newsom (Emory University) for her comments, which improved what can be a tricky exercise of cross-cultural comparison between ancient and modern figures. Whatever shortcomings remain are my own. Unless stated otherwise, biblical translations are the author’s.
Works Cited
Adams, Samuel L. 2008. Wisdom in Transition: Act and Consequence in Second Temple Instructions. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism (JSOJSup) 125. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/ej.9789004165663.i-314Suche in Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah. 1971. “Thinking and Moral Considerations.” Social Research 38: 417–446.Suche in Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah. 1978. Life of the Mind, 2 vols. New York: Harcourt, Inc.Suche in Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah. 1998. The Human Condition. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226924571.001.0001Suche in Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah. 2003. Der Liebesbegriff bei Augustin: Versuch einer philosophischen Interpretation, edited by L. Lütkehaus. Berlin: Philo, (orig. 1928).Suche in Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah. 2006. On Revolution. New York: Penguin Books, (orig. 1963).Suche in Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah. 2006. “The Crisis in Education.” In Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought, 170–93. New York: Penguin Books, (orig. 1961).Suche in Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah. 2006. “Tradition and the Modern Age,” in Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought, 17–40. New York: Penguin Books, (orig. 1961).Suche in Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah. 2006. “What is Authority?” In Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought, 91–141. New York: Penguin Books, (orig. 1961).Suche in Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah. 2006. “What is Freedom?” In Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought, 142–169. New York: Penguin Books, (orig. 1961).Suche in Google Scholar
Augustine of Hippo. 2015. The City of God against the Pagans. (Reprint), trans. R. W. Dyson. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Beatty, Joseph. 1976. “Thinking and Moral Considerations: Socrates and Arendt’s Eichmann.” The Journal of Value Inquiry 10: 266–278.10.1007/BF00137306Suche in Google Scholar
Benhabib, Seyla. 2003. The Reluctant Modernism of Hannah Arendt. 2nd ed. Modernity and Political Thought 10. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.Suche in Google Scholar
Bernstein, Richard J. 1996. “Did Hannah Arendt Change her Mind? From Radical Evil to the Banality of Evil.” In Hannah Arendt: Twenty Years Later, edited by Larry May and Jerome Kohn, 127–146. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Bernstein, Richard J. 2002. “Arendt on Thinking.” In The Cambridge Companion to Hannah Arendt (reprint), edited by Dana Villa, 277–292. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CCOL0521641985.015Suche in Google Scholar
Brown, William P. 1996. Character in Crisis: A Fresh Approach to the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.Suche in Google Scholar
Canovan, Margaret. 1990. “Socrates or Heidegger? Hannah Arendt’s Reflections on Philosophy and Politics.” Social Research 57: 135–165.Suche in Google Scholar
Canovan, Margaret. 1992. Hannah Arendt: A Reinterpretation of Her Political Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511521300Suche in Google Scholar
Crenshaw, James. 1987. Ecclesiastes: A Commentary. The Old Testament Library (OTL). Philadelphia: The Westminster Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Crenshaw, James. 2005. Defending God: Biblical Responses to the Problem of Evil. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/0195140028.001.0001Suche in Google Scholar
Crenshaw, James. 2007. “Qohelet in Historical Context.” Biblica 88: 285–299.Suche in Google Scholar
Davies, Brian. 2004. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Deneen, Patrick J. 2018. Why Liberalism Failed. New Haven: Yale University Press.10.12987/yale/9780300223446.001.0001Suche in Google Scholar
Fox, Michael V. 1986. “The Meaning of Hebel for Qohelet.” Journal of Biblical Literature (JBL) 105: 409–427.10.2307/3260510Suche in Google Scholar
Fox, Michael V. 1999. A Time to Tear Down & A Time to Build Up: A Rereading of Ecclesiastes. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.Suche in Google Scholar
Gertz, Jan Christian. 2009. “Antibabylonische Polemik im Priesterlichen Schöpfungsbericht?” Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche 106: 137–155.10.1628/004435409788498764Suche in Google Scholar
Gottlieb, Susannah Young-ah. 2003. Regions of Sorrow: Anxiety and Messianism in Hannah Arendt and W. H. Auden. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Greenwood, Kyle R. 2012. “Debating Wisdom: The Role of Voice in Ecclesiastes.” Catholic Biblical Quarterly (CBQ) 74: 476–491.Suche in Google Scholar
Gregory, Eric. 2008. Politics & the Order of Love: An Augustinian Ethic of Democratic Citizenship. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Harrison, Peter. 2008. The Fall of Man and the Foundations of Science, (reprint). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Hatton, Peter. 2011. “A Cautionary Tale: The Acts-Consequence ‘Construct’.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament (JSOT) 35: 375–384.10.1177/0309089210385517Suche in Google Scholar
Hays, Christopher B. 2014. Hidden Riches: A Sourcebook for the Comparative Study of the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near East. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Hermisson, Hans-Jürgen. 1984. “Observations on the Creation Theology in Wisdom.” In Creation in the Old Testament, edited by Bernhard W. Anderson, 118–134. Issues in Religion and Theology 6. Philadelphia: Fortress Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Isaac, Jeffrey C. 1992. Arendt, Camus, and Modern Rebellion. New Haven: Yale University Press.10.2307/j.ctt211qwq7Suche in Google Scholar
Jones, Scott C. 2014. “The Values and Limits of Qohelet’s Sub-Celestial Economy.” Vetus Testamentum 64: 21–33.10.1163/15685330-12301147Suche in Google Scholar
Kampowski, Stephan. 2008. Arendt, Augustine, and the New Beginning: The Action Theory and Moral Thought of Hannah Arendt in the Light of Her Dissertation on St. Augustine. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.Suche in Google Scholar
Kiess, John. 2016. Hannah Arendt and Theology. London: Bloomsbury.Suche in Google Scholar
Knott, Marie Luise, ed. 2010. Hannah Arendt, Gershom Scholem. Der Briefwechsel. Berlin: Jüdischer Verlag im Suhrkamp.Suche in Google Scholar
Kohn, Jerome, and Ron H. Feldman, eds. 2007. The Jewish Writings: Hannah Arendt. New York: Schocken Books.Suche in Google Scholar
Krüger, Thomas. 1997. “Die Rezeption der Tora im Buch Kohelet.” In Das Buch Kohelet: Studien zur Struktur, Geschichte, Rezeption und Theologie, edited by Ludger Schwienhorst-Schönberger, 303–325. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZAW) 254. Berlin: de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110805963.303Suche in Google Scholar
Krüger, Thomas. 2004. Qoheleth: A Commentary, trans. O.C. Dean Jr. Hermeneia. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Krüger, Thomas. 2009. “Das Herz in der alttestamentlichen Anthropologie.” In Anthropologische Aufbrüche: Alttestamentliche und interdisziplinäre Zugänge zur historischen Anthropologie, edited by Andreas Wagner, 103–118. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.10.13109/9783666531897.103Suche in Google Scholar
Krüger, Thomas. 2009. “Das menschliche Herz und die Weisung Gottes: Elemente einer Diskussion über Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Tora-Rezeption im Alten Testament.” In Das menschliche Herz und die Weisung Gottes: Studien zur alttestamentlichen Anthropologie und Ethik, 107–148. Studien zur alttestamentlichen Anthropologie und Ethik (AThANT) 96. Zürich: Theologischer Verlag, Zurich (TVZ).Suche in Google Scholar
Krüger, Thomas. 2014. “‘And They Have No Comforter’: Job and Ecclesiastes in Dialogue.” In Reading Ecclesiastes Intertextually, edited by Katharine Dell and Will Kynes, 94–105. Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies (LHBOTS) 587. London: Bloomsbury.Suche in Google Scholar
Lasater, Phillip Michael. 2017. “Text Reception and Conceptions of Authority in Second Temple Contexts. A Response to Judith H. Newman.” In Jeremiah’s Scriptures: Production, Reception, Interaction, and Transformation, edited by Hindy Najman and Konrad Schmid, 263–267. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/9789004320253_023Suche in Google Scholar
Lasater, Phillip Michael. 2019. Facets of Fear: The Fear of God in Exilic and Post-exilic Contexts. FAT/II. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.10.1628/978-3-16-156677-6Suche in Google Scholar
Lasater, Phillip Michael. 2020. “Subordination and the Human Condition in Ecclesiastes.” The Journal of Religion 100: 75–102.10.1086/706158Suche in Google Scholar
Lohfink, Norbert. 1986. Kohelet. 3rd ed. Neue Echter Bibel. Würzburg: Echter Verlag.Suche in Google Scholar
MacIntyre, Alasdair. 1988. Whose Justice? Which Rationality? Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.Suche in Google Scholar
MacIntyre, Alasdair. 2010. After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory. 3rd ed. (Reprint). Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, (orig. 1981).Suche in Google Scholar
Mahony, Deirdre Lauren. 2018. Hannah Arendt’s Ethics. London: Bloomsbury Academic.Suche in Google Scholar
Mathewes, Charles T. 2001. Evil and the Augustinian Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511487781Suche in Google Scholar
McCarthy, Dennis J. 1984. “‘Creation’ Motifs in Ancient Hebrew Poetry.” In Creation in the Old Testament, edited by Bernhard W. Anderson, 74–89. Issues in Religion and Theology 6. Philadelphia: Fortress Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Michel, Diethelm. 1989. “Traktat über die Möglichkeiten der Weisheit. Qoh 1,3–3,15 als Darlegung der Philosophie Qohelets.” in Untersuchungen zur Eigenart des Buches Qohelet. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZAW) 183. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1–83.10.1515/9783110874396Suche in Google Scholar
Neiman, Susan. 2004. Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Newsom, Carol A. 2019. “Evil in the Hebrew Bible: The Case of the Wisdom Literature.” In Evil: A History, edited by Andrew P. Chignell, 60–81. Oxford Philosophical Concepts. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780199915453.003.0004Suche in Google Scholar
Pinker, Steven. 2003. The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature. (Reprint). New York: Penguin Books.Suche in Google Scholar
Porter, Jean. 2005. Nature as Reason: A Thomistic Theory of Natural Law. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.Suche in Google Scholar
Rad, Gerhard von. 1971. “‘Gerechtigkeit’ und ‘Leben’ in der Kultsprache der Psalmen.” In Gesammelte Studien zum Alten Testament, 225–247. Neudrucke und Berichte aus dem 20. Jahrhundert 8. Munich: Kaiser Verlag.Suche in Google Scholar
Rey, Jean-Sébastien. 2016. “Knowledge Hidden and Revealed: Ben Sira between Wisdom and Apocalyptic Literature.” Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel (HeBAI) 5: 255–272.10.1628/186870316X14805954607678Suche in Google Scholar
Saur, Markus. 2011. “Sapientia discursiva: Die alttestamentliche Weisheitsliteratur als theologischer Diskurs.” Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (ZAW) 123: 236–249.10.1515/zaw.2011.015Suche in Google Scholar
Schellenberg, Annette. 2013 Kohelet. Zürcher Bibelkommentare/AT 17. Zürich: Theologischer Verlag Zürich.Suche in Google Scholar
Schmid, Hans Heinrich. 1966. Wesen und Geschichte der Weisheit. Eine Untersuchung zur altorientalischen und israelitischen Weisheitsliteratur. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZAW) 101. Berlin: Alfred Töpelmann.10.1515/9783110802429Suche in Google Scholar
Schoors, Antoon. 2004. The Preacher Sought to Find Pleasing Words: A Study of the Language of Qoheleth, Part 2: Vocabulary. Leuven: Peeters.Suche in Google Scholar
Schüle, Andreas. 2007. “Evil from the Heart: Qoheleth’s Negative Anthropology and its Canonical Context.” In The Language of Qohelet in Its Context: Essays in honour of Prof. A. Schoors on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday, edited by A. Berlejung and P. Van Hecke, 157–176. Leuven: Peeters.Suche in Google Scholar
Seow, C. L. 1996. “Linguistic Evidence and the Dating of Qohelet.” Journal of Biblical Literature (JBL) 115: 643–666.10.2307/3266347Suche in Google Scholar
Seow, C. L. 1997. Ecclesiastes: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Anchor Bible. New York: Doubleday.10.5040/9780300261295Suche in Google Scholar
Seybold, Klaus “הבל,” in T.D.O.T. 3:313–320.Suche in Google Scholar
Slingerland, Edward. 2010. What Science Offers the Humanities: Integrating Body and Culture. (Reprint). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Smith, Christian. 2010. What is a Person? Rethinking Humanity, Social Life, and the Moral Good from the Person Up. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226765938.001.0001Suche in Google Scholar
Sneed, Mark R. 2012. The Politics of Pessimism in Ecclesiastes: A Social-Science Perspective. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature.10.2307/j.ctt32bzwzSuche in Google Scholar
Sneed, Mark R. 2017. “הבל as ‘Worthless’ in Qoheleth: A Critique of Michael V. Fox’s ‘Absurd’ Thesis.” Journal of Biblical Literature (JBL) 136: 879–894.10.1353/jbl.2017.0053Suche in Google Scholar
Uehlinger, Christoph. 1997. “Qohelet im Horizont mesopotamischer, levantinischer und ägyptischer Weisheitsliteratur der persischen und hellenistischen Zeit.” In Das Buch Kohelet: Studien zur Struktur, Geschichte, Rezeption und Theologie, edited by Ludger Schwienhorst-Schönberger, 155–247. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZAW) 254; Berlin: de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110805963.155Suche in Google Scholar
Villa, Dana R. 1996. “The Banality of Philosophy: Arendt on Heidegger and Eichmann.” In Hannah Arendt: Twenty Years Later, edited by Larry May and Jerome Kohn, 179–196. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Weeks, Stuart. 2010. Introduction to the Study of Wisdom Literature. London: T&T Clark.Suche in Google Scholar
Weeks, Stuart. 2012. Ecclesiastes and Scepticism. Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies (LHB/OTS) 541. London: T&T Clark.Suche in Google Scholar
Weeks, Stuart. 2013. “‘Fear God and Keep his Commandments’: Could Qohelet have said this?” In Wisdom and Torah: The Reception of “Torah” in the Wisdom Literature of the Second Temple Period, edited by Bernd U. Schipper and D. Andrew Teeter, 101–118. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism (JSOJSup) 163. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/9789004257368_007Suche in Google Scholar
Williams, Rowan. 1987. “Politics and the Soul: A Reading of the City of God.” Milltown Studies 19/20: 55–72.Suche in Google Scholar
Zimmerli, Walther. 1983. “‘Unveränderbare Welt’ oder ‘Gott ist Gott’? Ein Plädoyer für die Unaufgebbarkeit des Predigerbuches in der Bibel.” In “Wenn nicht jetzt, wann dann?” Aufsätze für Hans-Joachim Kraus zum 65. Geburtstag, edited by Hans-Georg Geyer, J. M. Schmidt, W. Schneider, and M. Weinrich, 103–114. Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag.Suche in Google Scholar
©2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
