God Picks Up the Pieces

Calvin G. Seerveld

This book is a literary English translation of the Biblical book Ecclesiastes as a chorus of different voices (like the book of Job) contesting the meaning of things. A careful introduction delineates the various speakers--Qohelet, editor, apprentice rabbis, the Woman Wisdom (of Proverbs) voice--along with a sevenfold refrain, and reports on the various ways the whole piece has been performed in Canada, the USA and Spain. A very brief review of a few artworks by Goya, Rouault and Kollwitz hint at themes in Ecclesiastes. A thesis for the oral, performative nature of the Scriptures is articulated, along with a couple of pastoral expositions of the book.