The song of songs : a celebration of human love from a feminine perspective

Abstract

In this work I would like to promote an opportunity for discussing the female authorship of the Song of Songs. I am explaining some recurrent features of this book, such as the meaning of human sexuality as an essential element in human love, the prominence of the female figures and the link between the Song of Songs and Garden of Eden narrative. I want to emphasize the fact that the Song of Songs is a story of heterosexual love and it displays a degree of personal equality between the male and the female that is singular in the literature of the Old Testament. I have based my work on that of various authors and scholars, amongst them female authors, who in their work discussed basic feminist issues of this book. This dissertation is divided into seven chapters. Chapter One shows us that human sexuality is a gift given by God. Chapter Two tells us what the Song of Songs is about. Chapter Three raises the issue of female authorship. Chapter Four shows some feminine features in the Song of Songs to put forward the idea that it may have been written by a woman. Chapter Five views this book as a celebration of human love. Chapter Six summarises the story of the couple in the Song and Chapter Seven creates a comparison bet\Neen the Song of Songs and the Garden of Eden narrative. One should realize that sexuality is a dimension in every person who continuously yearns for interpersonal communion. Above all, the dynamism of human sexuality reaches through and beyond human relationship, to God who "first loved us" and who enables us to love Him and love others.