Ecclesiastes = a backslidden Solomon?

WTF? I heard that today in church. That seems to be standard fare in evangelical circles. It seems to me that comes from the vantage point of a happy place, as if Solomon, assuming, for the sake of argument, the claims of his authorship, is depressed. If you ask me, he isn't depressed at all. He is simply aware of what many an invidiual who has searched deep into life's mysteries has realized - it is all for naught. And this is far from a negative thing to those who have discovered this. It is liberation.

Perhaps it is due to the influence of the Dao in my life but I see Ecclesiastes as the Biblical version of the DDJ. It isn't depressing; it is accurate. Solomon need not have been backslidden. It would seem to me that the liberation I find in the book comes from my backslidden state. That would make me "backslidden" because I share the very same philosohpy expressed in that book. And I don't believe Solomon wrote it. I believe, like most of the Bible, it is a repository of a community's cumulative spiritual knowledge.

Ok, so it's not the live-in-denial happinesss of the gated communities of suburbia kind. It isn't the hyperemotionalism of the charismatic folks. It isn't the superspiritual favorite of the mystic. It isn't the hyperrevelation of the prophets. In fact, from the point of view of the extremes it is rather bland. There is nothing extreme about it. Perhaps that's why it is viewed as such by those in evangelical circles who, by and large, seek extremes.

That's probably why I like it. It's really a book about the need to get out of self and so much of church today is all about self.