“The Use of Books is Endless, and Much Study is Wearisome” (Ecclesiastes 12:12)
Traditionally, these are the words of King Solomon, the wisest of Hebrew kings, but even if he did not say them, they remain relevant today. The books of ancient times were numerous, but they were nothing compared to those of our time. I confess to having contributed a few to this “endless” list of published books, so I thought a word or two of explanation (read “apology”?) might be in order.
Not having been the best of students in high school or college, I began my writing career as soon as I began teaching, assuming I should try to be a “scholar” of some sort. Over the years, I wrote and submitted numerous essays to scholarly theological journals, but only a couple were published. I finally found a publisher (Wm. B. Eerdmans) for my first book, “The Possibility of Religious Knowledge” (1968), which received a kind editorial note from Martin Marty, the editor of The Christian Century. Over the next few years, I managed to write a couple more volumes and several articles for scholarly journals.
Then I “hit it big” when the Macmillan Company agreed to publish a series of philosophical essays I had selected and edited: “Philosophy Today Numbers 1, 2, and 3.” These became a big hit, and my writing “career” was off and running. About ten years later, Wadsworth Publishers produced my updated version of my former professor Melvin Rader’s introductory text, “The Enduring Questions,” which then went through three more editions. Together, these two publication adventures were the only ones from which I ever made any money. In the meantime, I continued to write articles for scholarly journals with various publishers for many years.
As most of you know, all of this was in addition to my teaching career, which was the heart and soul of my years as an academician. The classroom is where I thrived, and my many friendships with my students over the years were what drove me to improve as a teacher. Recently, Cambridge Scholars Publishing Company in England has published my latest and final volume, “Understanding Wittgenstein’s Authorship.” Having spent many years studying Wittgenstein’s writings, I have some hope that this book might be of use to other students of Wittgenstein.
I must admit I am still surprised by all the foregoing activities and results. Not until I completed graduate school did any of my teachers expect me to become something of a scholar. Even though I have come to love scholarly writing, I now find it increasingly difficult to write clearly on the typewriter. I am continuing a weekly online class with several of my former students, reading and discussing various volumes of my own and others. These times are very special to me, partly because they keep me intellectually alive, but mostly because I love my former student friends very much. They have helped make my life what it is. None of the above has been “wearisome,” only “wonderful.”