Eros and Allegory: Medieval Exegesis of the Song of Songs

by Denys Turner

Monks and priests - male celibates - have for centuries described, expressed, and celebrated their love for God in the language of sex, most prolifically and characteristically in a thousand-year tradition of theological commentaries on the scriptural Song of Songs. As their allegory for the intimate love between God and man, they chose the most intense human model available - erotic love. After analyzing the tradition, its logic, and its imagery, Denys Turner provides translations of a dozen medieval commentaries never before available in English. From Gregory the Great in the sixth century to John of the Cross in the sixteenth, lovers of God speak in their own words across a thousand years a message as compelling today as it was in the Middle Ages.

471 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Denys Turner is the Horace Tracy Pitkin Professor of Historical Theology at Yale University, a position which he has held since 2005. He previously was the Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University. He received his B.A. and M.A. from University College, Dublin, and his D.Phil from the University of Oxford.

Turner's work covers several areas within the history of Christianity, with a special focus on mysticism and medieval thought. He has also published two works on Marx and the relationship between Marxism and Christianity.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

How did the medievals interpret the Song of Solomon? What "multiple meanings" did they ascribe and how?

The first section of the book contains a detailed discussion of the background of love and eros, and then of allegory, imagery and the use and meaning of language. The second half takes a series of commentators and produces their comments on the opening verse of chapter one for comparison.

The following are addressed: What is a literal meaning? Is this primary? Are there multiple meanings? How does the spiritual meaning relate to the literal and historical? What is typology?

Gregory the Great
Alcuin of York
Hugh of St. Victor
William of St. Thierry
Alain of Lille
Thomas of Perseigne
Thomas Gallus
Thomas Aquinas
Giles of Rome
Nicholas of Lyra
Denys the Carthusian

If one compares the above with the handling of the text by puritan, Richard Sibbes (see Works vol 2:200ff.) on SS 1:2, the basic hermeneutical approach differs little in substance or overall interpretive stance.