Posted on 03/13/2006 11:49:48 AM PST by klossg
When Denise and Roger Friesen planned a Valentine's Day dinner for their Omaha, Neb., church, they immediately knew their theme: the Song of Solomon -- sometimes called the Song of Songs -- the sexiest book in the Bible.
"O, that you would kiss me with the kisses of your mouth!" says a woman to her lover as the book begins. "For your love is better than wine." Later language compares male legs to alabaster columns and female bosoms to clusters of fruit on a tree.
The Friesens, both 47, credit the little book in the Hebrew Bible with helping to move their 23-year marriage from rocky to romantic.
"We think that most marriages devolve, and we feel like ours has evolved," Denise Friesen said. "We have more romance, more love. We look forward to coming home and being together as opposed to two people sharing the same address."
The couple lead a marriage and family ministry at their Evangelical Free Church in America congregation. In addition to last year's Valentine's dinner, they have hosted adult studies of Song of Solomon.
Others are also quoting the eight-chapter book tucked between Ecclesiastes and Isaiah. Denton pastor Tommy Nelson has led conferences on the topic for almost a decade. A Florida company recently issued a CD featuring a spoken-word dialogue between the lovers in the book. Pope Benedict XVI cited it in a recent encyclical on erotic and spiritual love.
But in other circles, the Bible's sexy love poems are hardly ever read, in part because they make believers blush.
"I don't recall ever receiving a sermon from the Song of Solomon," said Michael Duduit, editor of Preaching magazine, who has accepted sermons for possible inclusion in his bimonthly publication for 20 years. "I suspect many pastors aren't quite sure how to deal with Song of Solomon."
Some biblical scholars interpret the book as a tale of the courtship and marriage of King Solomon and his wife, whereas others view it as a fantasy about love between a man and a woman. Nelson, pastor of Denton Bible Church, said people who attend his Song of Solomon conferences are surprised to learn there's Scripture so candid about sex.
The 55-year-old, who speaks primarily at evangelical churches, unpacks the book verse by verse, explaining its dual emphasis on sexuality and purity.
"You can see that she is undressed and they're right to the point of consummating their union," he said of verse 12 of chapter 4.
"He mentions the sexuality of the woman as a garden that has been locked to him and a spring that is sealed off to him," Nelson said of the newly married couple in the book. "The anatomical metaphor is very clear, of a spring, an opening where life comes forth."
Nelson said the book's passion can catch people off guard.
"When you start talking about a man and a woman's accountability to God in the home, and especially in the areas of sexuality and tenderness, you're about to get a real quiet church service," Nelson said. "Because, the fact is, everybody struggles with this but nobody talks about it."
Guy Bickel, vice president of Book 22, a Tampa, Fla.-based recording label, debuted the CD titled The Original Love Song: Guidelines for Passion From the Song of Solomon in November following an unsuccessful search for a similar product.
"We were just hoping that this would give everybody in the Christian world something romantic to listen to that isn't porno," said Bickel.
Beyond Nelson's conferences and the new CD, this section of Scripture is also a topic for scholars. Richard S. Hess, an Old Testament professor at Denver Seminary, wrote an article in the Winter 2005 issue of Bible Review magazine on the topic.
"It's one that's very difficult to preach from," said Hess, who has never heard a sermon on it. "The Song of Songs is erotic love poetry. . . . The song would be very difficult to do in a mixed audience because you would be dealing with themes and ideas that just aren't appropriate in that context."
Christian marriage is the Song of Songs.... but also the Crucifixion.
Forty-Five years....The song is ---Still The One!!
Is that what they gave us? Nah. They had us doing these juvenile communication exercises straight out of pop psychology. I was reading John Paul's Theology of the Body on my own, and there was nobody in the marriage class (laity or clergy) who knew one blessed tbing about it.
I think things are somewhat better now, in some places at least. This would be the place to bring up the Song of Songs and much, much else. Christ Almighty, our Catholic people are hungering for this. It's a banquet; and they give us balogna sandwiches. Thanks, klossg, for posting this.
Ugh ... in some places we don't even get the bologna sandwich ... just a bunch of baloney!
If it weren't for good Catholic LAY people guiding my ways, I'd be a pretty wayward individual by now. Oh, man. Believe it.
The title of Tommy nelson's book is "The Book of Romance". It is excellent.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.