Word Of The Day: Meliorism

The Latin word 'melior' means 'better'. 'Meliorism' is the belief that the world can be made better by human effort. It is a pretty positive belief; the catch lies in the single word 'human'. Unfortunately, human endeavour has often been associated with failure: "human weakness", "human frailty", and other such phrases tend to support the idea that to be human is to be flawed. The idea of human shortcoming ('falling short of the glory of God') is an old one, and obviously a true one. Despite our claims to being the high point of creation (or of evolution, if you are so inclined), we are not particularly perfect.

In my study of the old Latin Vulgate text of the Bible, I came across three instances of melior ('better') or its equivalent in the fourth chapter of Ecclesiastes, which was my reading for this morning. They are interesting statements. I am meditating on each one of them today. They do seem to hold out hope for meliorism as long as that is approached with God-fearing prudence. I have much to learn.

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Note: there are actually four instances of melior in the Vulgate text for Ecclesiastes 4. The fourth instance is found in what the modern Bible calls Ecclesiastes 5:1, which used to be Ecclesiastes 4:17.