Editing Ecclesiastes (section)

===Catholicism===
Ecclesiastes has been cited in the writings of past and current [[Catholic Church]] leaders. For example, [[Doctors of the Church]] have cited Ecclesiastes. [[Augustine of Hippo]] cited Ecclesiastes in Book XX of ''[[City of God (book)|City of God]]''.<ref name="DqLRm">{{cite book |author=Augustine |url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120120.htm |title=The City of God |chapter=Book XX}}</ref> [[Jerome]] wrote a commentary on Ecclesiastes.<ref name="AwOsx">{{cite book |author=Jerome |url=http://www.paulistpress.com/Products/0601-1/66-st-jerome-commentary-on-ecclesiastes.aspx |title=Commentary on Ecclesiastes}}</ref> [[Thomas Aquinas]] cited Ecclesiastes ("The number of fools is infinite.") in his {{lang|la|[[Summa Theologica]]}}.<ref name="fCgmK">{{cite book |first=Thomas |last=Aquinas |url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/aquinas/summa/sum071.htm#FP_Q63_A9-p3.1 |title=Summa Theologica}}</ref>

The 20th-century Catholic theologian and cardinal-elect [[Hans Urs von Balthasar]] discussed Ecclesiastes in his work on theological aesthetics, ''The Glory of the Lord''. He describes Qoheleth as "a [[transcendental idealism|critical transcendentalist]] {{lang|fr|avant la lettre}}", whose God is distant from the world, and whose {{transliteration|grc|[[kairos]]}} is a "form of time which is itself empty of meaning". For Balthasar, the role of Ecclesiastes in the Biblical canon is to represent the "final dance on the part of wisdom, [the] conclusion of the ways of man", a logical end-point to the unfolding of human wisdom in the Old Testament that paves the way for the advent of the New.<ref name="FSVGG">{{cite book |last=von Balthasar |first=Hans Urs |title=The Glory of the Lord. Volume VI: Theology: The Old Covenant |translator=Brian McNeil and Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis |publisher=[[T&T Clark]] |location=Edinburgh |year=1991 |pages=137–143}}</ref>

The book continues to be cited by recent [[pope]]s, including [[Pope John Paul II]] and [[Pope Francis]]. Pope John Paul II, in his general audience of October 20, 2004, called the author of Ecclesiastes "an ancient biblical sage" whose description of death "makes frantic clinging to earthly things completely pointless".<ref name="d6iU1">{{cite book |last=Manhardt |first=Laurie |title=Come and See: Wisdom of the Bible |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T6g1uStpp4kC&pg=PA115 |publisher=Emmaus Road Publishing |year=2009 |page=115 |isbn=978-1-931018-55-5}}</ref> Pope Francis cited Ecclesiastes in his address on September 9, 2014. Speaking of vain people, he said, "How many Christians live for appearances? Their life seems like a [[soap bubble]]."<ref name="IGhUz">{{cite web |url=http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2014/09/25/pope_francis_vain_christians_are_like_soap_bubbles/1107284 |title=Pope Francis: Vain Christians are like soap bubbles |author=Pope Francis |work=[[Radio Vatican]] |access-date=2015-09-09}}</ref>