Of Making Blogs There Is No End

All Is Vanity by Christina Schwarz

All Is Vanity, by Christina Schwarz is a novel I haven't read. It begins with a kind of pre-mid-life crisis, i.e. a crisis of meaning before reaching mid-life. Anyway, the title comes from Ecclesiastes.

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

Les Miserables By Victor Hug o: "

í Grantaire perfectly boozy was deafening the corner of which he had taken possession he was talking sense md nonsense with all his might he cried I am thirsty Mortals I have a dream that the tun of Heidelberg has an attack of apoplexy and that I am the dozen leeches which is to be applied to it I would like a drink I desire to forget life Life is a hideous invention of somebody I don t know who It doesn t last and it is good for nothing You break your neck to live Life is a stage scene in which there is little that is practical Happiness is an old sash painted on one side The Ecclesiast says all is vanity I agree with that goodman who perhaps never existed Zero not wishing to go entirely naked has clothed himself in vanity О vanity 1 the patching up of everything with big words a kitchen is a nboratory a dancer is a professor a I

" Grantaire, in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, quotes "The Ecclesiast", 'all is vanity'.

Ephemeral Musical Album on Ecclesiastes

The Album is fictional, that is, it does not exist. Paulo Brabo's (from Curitiba, Brasil) alter ego Paulo Roberto Purim's

recording of "Silent Night" does exist on archive.org. The others items in the description are vanity:

Sum of God(2004), the Trinity Brothers' Christmas album, is the last entry in a trilogy which started with the award-winning Some of God (inspired by the Book of Ecclesiastes, 2001) and was followed by Sun of God(inspired by the Book of Psalms, 2003). Silent Night is the last song in this album. The Trinity Brothers are Paul, Bob and Mister. ©© The Brazilian Bomber Project Saint Brabo Monastery, West Indias

(Saint Brabo Monastery is as fictional as "West Indias").

Six Sermons on Ecclesiastes

www.archive.org has six recordings of sermons on Ecclesiastes by Dr. John Johnson of Village Baptist Church, in a series called "Coming to Grips with Reality":

2008-21-09, "The Reality Behind Pleasure and Profit"
2008-10-05, "Coming to Grips with Time"
2008-14-09, "The Reality of What we Can Control"
2008-09-28, "Seizing the Moments God Serves up"
2008-10-19, "The Reality of Individualism - Ecclesiastes 4:7-12"
"Sweat the Small Stuff - Ecclesiastes 10:1"

For all 18 sermons from the series (audio and manuscript), see the church website.

Dr. John Johnson is Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology at Western Seminary, and pastor of Village Baptist Church in Beaverton, Oregon.

Three Musketeers

Alexandre Dumas's Three Musketeers has a quote from the Ecclesiast

es theme verse when Aramis denies to D'Artangan that his decision to re-enter clerical life is motivated by a wound of the heart, rather than by his physical wound. He says "Vanitas vanitatum!" with the meaning that the suggestion of Aramis is 'nonsense', 'absurd', 'untrue'. (p 305).

Tolstoy quoting Ecclesiastes

In Tolstoy's War and Peace, there is a direct (almost) quotation of the theme verse of Ecclesiastes, "All is vanity, all falsehood, except that infinite sky. There is nothing, nothing, but that. But even it does not exist, there is nothing but quiet and peace." Part Three, chapter 16, page

294.

Church Unique

A new book by Will Mancini is the subject of a post by Greg Arthur. The basic premise is that every church is unique and should not be modeling itself after 'successful' churches. Amazon link, click here.