Wise and Foolish Love in the Song of Songs
Author: Jennifer Andruska (Hughes Hall 2018)
Publisher: Brill
For some time scholars have debated whether the Song of Songs, a small book of love poetry in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, has connections to the wisdom genre and how this changes our understanding of it. Wisdom literature in the ancient world was particularly concerned with how to live a successful life, in all areas, and this book shows that this included one love life. It demonstrates that the Song of Songs has combined elements of the ancient Near Eastern love song and wisdom genres to produce a wisdom literature about romantic love, inspiring readers to pursue a particular type of love relationship, modelled by the unmarried lovers throughout the poem, and aiming to transform them, through character formation, into wise lovers themselves.