The Empirically Corroborated Theology of the Meaning of Life in Ecclesiastes: A biblical and emirical analysis with reference to Malaysian Businesspeople

The intricate and complex book of Ecclesiastes has much to say on the subject of the meaning of life. Yet, concepts pertinent to the subject such as the worthwhile purpose of life and coherence in life, and for that matter, what the meaning of life means, remain insufficiently addressed in existing studies on the book. Considering that there is yet to be an adequately comprehensive work on the theology of Ecclesiastes in relation to the subject, this research seeks to construct an empirically corroborated theology of the meaning of life based on the book. It revisits the teaching of Ecclesiastes on the meaning of life and reconstructs its theology by engaging the thematic approach of interpreting and integrating the crucial themes in the book in light of the complex whole. These themes, namely that of הבל , enjoyment and undeserved suffering, are found to be subsumed under a central idea, expressed in Ecclesiastes 3:14c and 12:13b-14, thus forming a visible structure that rightly expresses the book’s theology. The investigation has found that undergirding this framework is the book’s distinctive teaching on the concepts of the worthwhile purpose of life and coherence in life, which thus reveal the relevance of the themes under investigation to the subject of the meaning of life. The hypotheses that express the book’s theology are subsequently tested in a separate and independent empirical enquiry examining the life of those who claim to have found the meaning of life. The empirical evidence affirms the validity of the reconstructed theology of the meaning of life with respect to real life experiences