A Companion to the Song of Songs in the History of Spirituality

Timothy H. Robinson, Ph.D. (Graduate Theological Union) is Alberta and Harold Lunger Associate Professor of Spiritual Resources and Disciplines at Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University. His publications include articles on Puritan reception of the Song and the book Edward Taylor’s Sacramental Meditations on the Song of Songs (2011).

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

List of Figures

Notes on Contributors



Introduction

  Timothy H. Robinson



1 Mystical Wounds

 Eastern Patristic Authors on the Song of Songs

  Emily R. Cain



2 “A Garden Enclosed, a Fountain Sealed”

 The Song of Songs and Ritual Purity in Early Latin Christianity

  Karl Shuve



3 The Song of Songs in the Early Middle Ages

 From Gregory the Great to the Gregorian Reform

  Hannah W. Matis



4 The Cistercian Song

 Reception of Bernard of Clairvaux’s Exegesis in Later Cistercian Interpretations of the Song of Songs

  Catherine Rose Cavadini



5 The Song of Songs as a Call to Action

 Scholastic Interpretation in the High Middle Ages

  Suzanne LaVere



6 The Song of Songs in Aelred of Rievaulx’s Liturgical Preaching

  Ann W. Astell



7 The Beautiful Men of the Song of Songs?

 Replacing and Erasing the Female Beloved in Ancient and Medieval Jewish Interpretation

  Jason Kalman



8 Women Interpreting the Song of Songs: 1150–1700

  Bernard McGinn



9 Abandonment and Abundance in John of the Cross’s Spiritual Canticle

 The Poet as the Writer of New Scripture

  Mark S. Burrows



10 Visual Exegesis of the Song of Songs in European Art

  Rabia Gregory



11 The Banquet of Love

 The Song of Songs in Reformed Sacramental Piety: 1586–1729

  Timothy H. Robinson



 Epilogue

 Christian Reception of the Song of Songs since 1800

  Arthur Holder



Bibliography

Index