The thought of Qoheleth : its structure, its sequential unfolding, and its position in Israel's theology.

This study analyses the theological thought of Qoheleth. In the
Introduction, a survey of Qoheleth studies in the last hundred
years has shown that the literary structure of the book of Qoheleth
is still crucial to the understanding of the theological thought of
Qoheleth. Thus, Chapter One of this thesis Is devoted to discussing
various approaches, i. e. traditional critical, form critical, and
modern literary approaches, which have been employed in the study
of the structure of the book.
Chapter Two analyses the structure of Qoheleth's theological
thought, arguing that '7]T (the absurd) and fflri (joy) are the two
concepts which make sense of Qoheleth's thought and also form the
fundamental structure of his thought. Together with various secondary
themes such as portion, profit, wisdom, wealth, death, remembrance
and God, they form the total structure of Qoehleth's
thought. This is followed by a reading of Qoheleth in Chapter
Three, analysing the argument of the book as it develops.
Chapter Four examines the position of Qoheleth's theological
thought within Israel's theology. The relationships between Wisdom
and Yahwism, and Wisdom and Creation are analysed, arguing that the
idea that Wisdom theology is essentially Creation theology is not
compatible with Qoheleth's thought. The theology of Qoheleth is to
be determined by the book itself, and proves to reflect neither
conservative Yahwism nor radical anti-Yahwism. The uniqueness of
Qoheleth's thought leads to the identification of Qoheleth as a
'liminal intellectual' who may be going through a period of transition,
in the process of adopting a new set of beliefs, social
norms or status. Thus. Qoheleth's theological thought may be seen
as a 'liminal' theology, with 'liminality' as its social setting.