The Connection And Change In Dealing With Dilemma Between Ecclesiastes And Faust

Ecclesiastes is a book of wisdom that describes special experiences about the world and life.Goethe's Faust is hailed as the Bible of modern western.Goethe had a talent for absorbing foreign cultures to enrich his own works.Scholars concerned about Goethe's borrowing from Bible,especially the relation between Faust and Job.However,there were few articles about Faust and Ecclesiastes.From Goethe's poems and autobiography,we can conclude that Ecclesiastes brought a profound influence to Goethe,and Goethe was approve of Qoheleth's worldview.They all have a narrative mode that when God is silence,what should human do? How to find the meaning of life?To describe the dilemma that Qoheleth and Faust face together,it is attributable to invalid knowledge and faith.They all experience how limited and incapable humans were.Nevertheless,they not give up finding meaning of life,they are in pursuit of kindness and a joyful lifestyle.Goethe's notion of time fit into Jewish humanism and secular character,so they all cherished the present.The dominant views on the solution of troubles are similar in the two works,but difference can be seen in details.Qoheleth stresses the joy of daily life,Faust goes after the moment that has great value.Qoheleth suggests that observing Torah,fearing of God can achieve salvation,Faust says everything with action and his own desire,even sacrifices morality for his cause.What question Qoheleth and Faust want to deal with is different.The problem that Qoheleth faces is how to get on well with God when his God is absent from Jewish history,but hidden in human life.Therefore,the traditional theology needs to renew.Humans' place is also raised in the relationship with God.Faust reflects Goethe' s concern on religion and nature.God and nature are interlinked in Faust.Faust is a tragic character in the sense that he destroys the order of the great creator.Qoheleth sticks to his belief through the struggle of reason and faith.Faust also experiences a hard time that divide or unify himself.There is a connection when Qoheleth and Faust deal with their dilemma.They embody humanistic spirit.For a new era,Faust chooses a more inventive coping strategy.Ecclesiastes and Faust are all books of experiences,philosophy and human.Qoheleth and Goethe acknowledge the limit and ability of human beings,they try to build a harmonious relationship with God.Nevertheless,Qoheleth is hard to break through his traditional faith,and he never imagine the union with god,there is a wide gap between them.Goethe wanted to reveal that God guide human to raise,they work with each other.So,in the responding and transcending relation between Ecclesiastes and Faust,we can extract and purify the common survival experiences to inspire the present people.