The Song of Songs in the Middle Ages
The Song of Songs in the Middle Ages

Author: Ann W. Astell

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2018-10-18

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 1501720694

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Included among the sacred books of Judaism and Christianity alike, the Song of Songs does not mention God at all; on the surface it is a lyrical exchange between unnamed lovers who articulate the range of emotions associated with sexual love. Ann W. Astell here examines medieval reader response, both interpretive and imitative, to the Song. Disputing the common view that the literal meaning of Canticles had no value for medieval readers, Astell points to twelfth-century commentaries on the Song, as well as an array of Middle English works, as evidence that the Song's sensuous imagery played an essential part in its tropological appeal. Emphasizing the ways in which a complex fusion of the Song's carnal and spiritual meanings appealed rhetorically to a variety of audiences, Astell first considers interpretive responses to Canticles, contrasting Origen's dialectical exposition with the affective commentaries of the twelfth century—ecclesiastical, Marian, and mystical. According to Astell, these commentaries present Canticles as a marriage song that mirrors a series of analogous marriages, both within the individual and between human and divine persons. Astell describes interpretations of the Song of Songs in terms of the various feminine archetypes that the expositors emphasize—the Virgin, Mother, Hetaira, or Medium. She maintains that the commentat5ors encourage the auditor's identification with the figure of the Bride so as to evoke and direct the feminine, affective powers of the soul. Turning to literature influenced by the Song, she then discusses how the reading process is reinscribed in selected works in Middle English, including Richard Rolle's autobiographical writings, Pearl, religious love lyrics, and cycle dramas. The Song of Songs in the Middle Ages provides an innovative model of reader response that opens the way for a deeper understanding of the literary influence of biblical texts.

The Song of Songs
The Song of Songs

Author: Debra Band

Publisher:

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Now, in The Song of Songs: The Honeybee in the Garden, author and artist Debra Band presents a breathtakingly beautiful illuminated work in which these two lines of interpretation are harmonized within a stunning visual context.

The Song of Songs in the Early Middle Ages
The Song of Songs in the Early Middle Ages

Author: Hannah W. Matis

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2019-01-28

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 9004389253

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Hannah Matis examines how a biblical text was read by the most important figures within the ninth-century Carolingian Reform to think about the nature of Christ and the church.

The Voice of My Beloved
The Voice of My Beloved

Author: E. Ann Matter

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2010-08-03

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 081220056X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Song of Songs, eight chapters of love lyrics found in the collection of wisdom literature attributed to Solomon, is the most enigmatic book of the Bible. For thousands of years Jews and Christians alike have preserved it in the canon of scripture and used it in liturgy. Exegetes saw it as a central text for allegorical interpretations, and so the Song of Songs has exerted an enormous influence on spirituality and mysticism in the Western tradition. In the Voice of My Beloved, E. Ann Matter focuses on the most fertile moment of Song of Songs interpretation: the Middle Ages. At least eighty Latin commentaries on the text survive from the period. In tracing the evolution of these commentaries, Matter reveals them to be a vehicle for expressing changing medieval ideas about the church, the relationship between body and soul, and human and divine love. She shows that the commentaries constitute a well-defined genre of medieval Latin literature. And in discussing the exegesis of the Song of Songs, she takes into account the modern exegesis of the book and feminist critiques of the theology embodied in the text.

The Song of Songs Through the Ages
The Song of Songs Through the Ages

Author: Annette Schellenberg

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2023-04-27

Total Pages: 613

ISBN-13: 3110750821

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Song of Songs is a fascinating text. Read as an allegory of God’s love for Israel, the Church, or individual believers, it became one of the most influential texts from the Bible. This volume includes twenty-three essays that cover the Song’s reception history from antiquity to the present. They illuminate the richness of this reception history, paying attention to diverse interpretations in commentaries, sermons, and other literature, as well as the Song’s impact on spirituality, theological and intellectual debates, and the arts.

Interpreting the Song of Songs
Interpreting the Song of Songs

Author: Annette Schellenberg

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9789042933743

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Song of Songs is one of the most often interpreted books of the Bible. Through the ages interpreters have agreed that it is a highly poetic piece of literature, but their interpretations have differed fundamentally. After a centuries-long consensus that the Song must be interpreted allegorically as reflecting the relationship of God and humans and a shorter consensus that the Song must be interpreted literally as a composition of profane love lyrics, the discussion in recent years has once again become more controversial, as a growing number of exegetes have been more open to theological interpretations. This volume offers contibutions that take different stands in this newly inflamed discussion. It thus enables readers to further think about the question and come to their own conclusions.

Skies of Parchment, Seas of Ink
Skies of Parchment, Seas of Ink

Author: Marc Michael Epstein

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2022-10-11

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 140086562X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A superbly illustrated history of five centuries of Jewish manuscripts The love of books in the Jewish tradition extends back over many centuries, and the ways of interpreting those books are as myriad as the traditions themselves. Skies of Parchment, Seas of Ink offers the first full survey of Jewish illuminated manuscripts, ranging from their origins in the Middle Ages to the present day. Featuring some of the most beautiful examples of Jewish art of all time—including hand-illustrated versions of the Bible, the Haggadah, the prayer book, marriage documents, and other beloved Jewish texts—the book introduces readers to the history of these manuscripts and their interpretation. Edited by Marc Michael Epstein with contributions from leading experts, this sumptuous volume features a lively and informative text, showing how Jewish aesthetic tastes and iconography overlapped with and diverged from those of Christianity, Islam, and other traditions. Featured manuscripts were commissioned by Jews and produced by Jews and non-Jews over many centuries, and represent Eastern and Western perspectives and the views of both pietistic and liberal communities across the Diaspora, including Europe, Israel, the Middle East, and Africa. Magnificently illustrated with pages from hundreds of manuscripts, many previously unpublished or rarely seen, Skies of Parchment, Seas of Ink offers surprising new perspectives on Jewish life, presenting the books of the People of the Book as never before.

The Song of Songs
The Song of Songs

Author: Ilana Pardes

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2019-08-13

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 0691194246

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An essential history of the greatest love poem ever written The Song of Songs has been embraced for centuries as the ultimate song of love. But the kind of love readers have found in this ancient poem is strikingly varied. Ilana Pardes invites us to explore the dramatic shift from readings of the Song as a poem on divine love to celebrations of its exuberant account of human love. With a refreshingly nuanced approach, she reveals how allegorical and literal interpretations are inextricably intertwined in the Song's tumultuous life. The body in all its aspects—pleasure and pain, even erotic fervor—is key to many allegorical commentaries. And although the literal, sensual Song thrives in modernity, allegory has not disappeared. New modes of allegory have emerged in modern settings, from the literary and the scholarly to the communal. Offering rare insights into the story of this remarkable poem, Pardes traces a diverse line of passionate readers. She looks at Jewish and Christian interpreters of late antiquity who were engaged in disputes over the Song's allegorical meaning, at medieval Hebrew poets who introduced it into the opulent world of courtly banquets, and at kabbalists who used it as a springboard to the celestial spheres. She shows how feminist critics have marveled at the Song's egalitarian representation of courtship, and how it became a song of America for Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, and Toni Morrison. Throughout these explorations of the Song's reception, Pardes highlights the unparalleled beauty of its audacious language of love.

Song of Songs
Song of Songs

Author: Paul J. Griffiths

Publisher: Brazos Press

Published: 2011-06

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 1587431351

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This addition to the well-received Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible offers theological exegesis of the Song of Songs.