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.
After analyzing the tradition, its logic, and its imagery, Denys Turner provides translations of a dozen.
As their allegory for the intimate love between God and man, they chose the most intense human model available - erotic love.
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
