The Song of Songs: A Contemplative Guide

The Song of Songs is a short, beautiful but currently neglected book of the Bible. Whilst acknowledging it's fascinating portrayal of human love and longing for love, this unusual book explores the possibility of drawing on the mystics and the poets to read the book at a more profound level as a resource for contemplative prayer.

Aims to present the Song of Songs as a resource for contemplative prayer. From its recorded beginning before Christ, this biblical poem was widely, and in fact exclusively, interpreted both by Jews and Christians as a hymn of God's passionate love for his chosen people.

The Song of Songs is however a mysterious book, and the more modern reading of it as a celebration of human erotic love has largely displaced this older interpretation. Here, the author presents a contemporary mystical reading, with reference to some later Christian poetry, including John Donne, George Herbert, Gerald Manley Hopkins, and R. S. Thomas.

The Revd Graeme Watson is an Anglican priest involved in training men and women for ordained and lay ministries. A spiritual director, he leads poetry workshops, quiet days and retreats, and is an Hon. Asst Priest on the staff at St Mary Stoke Newington, London. He has written on George Herbert's mysticism for Theology, and on the apophatic tradition in the Anglican Church for The Way, and is the author of Strike the Cloud: Understanding and practising the teaching of The Cloud of Unknowing (SPCK, 2011).