Editing Song of Songs (section)

=== Christianity ===
[[File:Albert Joseph Moore - The Shulamite 1864.jpg|thumb|''The Shulamite'' by [[Albert Joseph Moore]] (1864)]]

The literal subject of the Song of Songs is love and sexual longing between a man and a woman, and it has little (or nothing) to say about the relationship of God and man; in order to find such a meaning it was necessary to turn to allegory, treating the love that the Song celebrates as an analogy for the love between God and Church.{{sfn|Norris|2003|p=1}} The Christian church's interpretation of the Song as evidence of God's love for his people, both collectively and individually, began with [[Origen]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mjxy0Fl7VMsC |title=The Song of Songs: Commentary and Homilies |author=R. O. Lawson |series=[[Ancient Christian Writers]] |publisher=[[Paulist Press]] |year=1957 |isbn=978-0-809-10261-7}}</ref> Saint [[Gregory of Nyssa]] wrote fifteen ''Homilies on the Song of Songs'', which are considered the pinnacle of his [[biblical exegesis]]. In them, he compares the bride to the soul and the invisible groom to God: the finite soul is incessantly reaching out towards the infinite God and remains continually disappointed in this life due to the failure to achieve [[ecstasis|ecstatic union]] with the beloved, a vision which enraptures and can be achieved fully and perfectly only in life after death.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.vatican.va/spirit/documents/spirit_20020920_gregorio-nissa_it.html |title=Homilies on the Song of Songs |website=Holy See}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.clerus.org/clerus/dati/2000-11/29-999999/Nissa.PDF |title=Homilies on the Song of Songs |author=Gregory of Nyssa |author2=Claudio Moreschini |language=it |access-date=2024-01-12 |archive-date=2024-01-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240109170800/https://www.clerus.org/clerus/dati/2000-11/29-999999/Nissa.PDF |url-status=bot: unknown}}</ref> Similarly, following the [[allegoric]] [[biblical hermeneutics|interpretation]] of [[Ambrose of Milan]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Asiedu |first=F. B. A. |year=2001 |title=The Song of Songs and the Ascent of the Soul: Ambrose, Augustine, and the Language of Mysticism |journal=Vigiliae Christianae |volume=55 |issue=3 |pages=299 |jstor=1584812}}</ref> Saint [[Augustine of Hippo]] stated that the Song of Songs represents the wedding between Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church, pure and virgin, within an [[ascetic]] context.<ref>''[[De Civitate Dei]]'', XVII, 20. As quoted in Nathalie Henry, ''The Lily and the Thorns : Augustine’s Refutation of the Donatist Exegesis of the Song of Songs'', in ''[[Revue des Études Augustiniennes]]'', 42 (1996), 255-266 (ivi p. 255)</ref> However, going against the prevailing opinion, [[Theodore of Mopsuestia]], influenced by the [[School of Antioch]], interpreted the Song of Songs literally, understanding it as an erotic poem written by Solomon to the daughter of Pharaoh. But, since the allegorical view was so predominant, his interpretation was condemned at the [[Second Council of Constantinople]]. As a result, his writings on this book were lost, and only his literalist position is known, which would later (from the 18th century onwards) become predominant among biblical scholars.<ref>[https://paultanner.org/English%20HTML/Publ%20Articles/Hist%20Song%20of%20Songs%20-%20P%20Tanner.pdf THE HISTORY OF INTERPRETATION OF THE SONG OF SONGS]</ref><ref>[https://catholicbiblestudent.com/2011/01/was-theodore-of-mopsuestia-song-of-songs.html Was Theodore of Mopsuestia condemned for his views on the Song of Songs?]</ref>

Over the centuries the emphases of interpretation shifted, first reading the Song as a depiction of the love between Christ and Church, the 11th century adding a moral element, and the 12th century understanding of the Bride as the [[Virgin Mary]], with each new reading absorbing rather than simply replacing earlier ones, so that the commentary became ever more complex.{{sfn|Matter|2011|p=201}} These theological themes are not found explicitly in the poem, but they come from a theological reading. Nevertheless, what is notable about this approach is the way it leads to conclusions not found in the overtly theological books of the [[Bible]].{{sfn|Kugler|Hartin|2009|p=223}} Those books reveal an abiding imbalance in the relationship between God and man, ranging from slight to enormous; but reading Songs as a theological metaphor produces quite a different outcome, one in which the two partners are equals, bound in a committed relationship.{{sfn|Kugler|Hartin|2009|p=223}}

In modern times the poem has attracted the attention of feminist biblical critics, with [[Phyllis Trible]]'s foundational "Depatriarchalizing in Biblical Interpretation" treating it as an exemplary text, and the Feminist Companion to the Bible series edited by [[Athalya Brenner]] and [[Carole Fontaine]] devoting two volumes to it.{{sfn|Pardes|2017|p=134}}{{sfn|Brenner|Fontaine|2000|p=passim}}

[[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] specifically rejects the Song of Solomon as inspired scripture.<ref>''[https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/old-testament-seminary-teacher-manual/introduction-to-the-song-of-solomon?lang=eng Introduction to the Song of Solomon]''</ref>