Landscapes of the Song of Songs
Poetry and Place
Elaine T. James
Reviews and Awards
"In this elegant study, James deftly maps the multifaceted landscapes of the Song with a combination of expert poetic analysis and nuanced interpretation, along with judicious use of ancient Near Eastern archaeological and topographical evidence and current ecological and environmental perspectives. Though primarily explicating the Song of Songs in its literary, social, and eco-historical context, this study offers bracing, delectable food for thought regarding a responsible "ethics of care" amidst our pressing ecological crisis. I highly recommend this volume; it is guaranteed to expand one's horizons on this provocative biblical book." - F. Scott Spencer, Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology
"Landscapes of the Song of Songs is a superb study of the co-constitutive relationship of land and humanity and of their lyrical presentation in the Song. Her emphasis on the blurring of human/land boundaries through cultivation and care (both physical and metaphorical) is a welcome corrective to the dominant trend of "nature" and "culture" in binary opposition. This book makes a welcome addition on the shelf of anyone interested in land-oriented or more broadly ecological approaches to the HB, and her detailed close readings provide excellent fodder for the scholar of biblical poetry in general or the Song in particular to graze upon." - Jared Beverly, Horizons in Biblical Theology
"Elaine T. James brings a novel approach to the poetics of the Song of Songs (hereafter, the Song) by focusing on the text's evocation of various types of landscapes ... This book's unique contribution is to show that the Song elaborates a vision of what it might mean to love one's land, which is to see it with affection and to intervene in it with care (151). James is at her best when she is explicating the poetry of the Song by analogy with other artistic expressions, ancient and modern." - Horizons: The Journal of the College Theology Society
