Qohelet as liminal intellectualism

HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Qohelet as liminal intellectualism
 
Creator Geyser-Fouche, Ananda Mokoena, Lerato L.D.
 
Subject Old Testament; Philosophy liminality; Qohelet; spatiality; separation; transition; absolutism
Description Qohelet is one of the most fascinating books in the Hebrew Bible because it falls outside of the confides of what it is deemed as orthodox in terms of genre, literary components and theology. Considered in both antiquity and contemporary interpretations as Wisdom Literature, the book holds rich material to be interpreted and classified in a myriad of ways. It is no secret that Qohelet is an idiosyncratic scholar whose position is defined by unusualness, to define it as defiance would be extreme. As traditional renderings of liminality are often but not always limited to spatiality and time, here liminality is defined as an intellectual exercise. The decision to locate Qohelet as a liminal intellectual is informed by the epistemology encountered in the book if the consensus is that Qohelet existed in post-exilic Israel and that the book borders mostly around philosophical themes and ideas. The aim of this article is to outline and state how, when and why Qohelet becomes a liminal intellectual. This article subsequently borrows from the discipline of anthropology to illuminate how such a position is attainable and possible through a reading of Qohelet with an intersection of Arnold van Gennep’s conception of liminality that traditionally speaks to the margins and structures of positions to how we use some of those tools of analysis to construct a liminality, which privileges knowledge production and encompasses so much more.Contribution: This article contributes to the ongoing arsenal of interdisciplinary studies which fits and embraces the scope of the journal.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2021-02-05
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Literary Analysis
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/hts.v77i4.5954
 
Source HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies; Vol 77, No 4 (2021); 7 pages 2072-8050 0259-9422
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/5954/17128 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/5954/17127 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/5954/17129 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/5954/17126
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2021 Ananda Geyser-Fouche, Lerato L.D. Mokoena https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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