A guest article by Brandon Biggs

The book of Song of Solomon has often been misunderstood and misinterpreted throughout history.  This article seeks to remedy this situation by providing a thoughtful and scholarly reflection upon the theme of romantic love within the book, and by expanding upon the two sub-themes associated with it—pleasure and danger.

This article begins by exploring the various interpretations of the Song of Solomon throughout history with their strengths and weaknesses.  As this article will show, the natural/literal interpretation suits the Song best.

The article progresses to explore the major theme of romantic/erotic love that is the crux of the entire book, and then to explore the sub-themes of the pleasure of romantic love and the danger of romantic love as they relate to the interpretation of the book.

As previously stated, the Song of Solomon has been often misunderstood and misinterpreted, and it is the goal of this article to leave the reader with a higher level of understanding as it relates to divine revelation and human interaction.

I. Introduction

The Song of Songs/Solomon has intrigued readers and scholars for centuries. The interpretation of the book has proved to be one of the most controversial topics in all of Old Testament criticism. The reader must assume an interpretative framework for this book or the message will be obscured by subjectivity. However, this is no easy task. Many learned scholars have proposed elaborate defenses for various interpretations of the book. The various methods of interpretation are as follows:

a) Allegorical

b) Typological

c) Drama

d) Natural/Literal

The allegorical approach of interpretation seems quite plausible, until one looks at the larger message of the book. Nowhere in the book of Song of Solomon are the words “YaHWeH,” “Adoni,” “El,” or “Elohim” to be found. Furthermore, “Allegorical writing usually gives hints that it is allegory….None of these elements is present in the Song of Songs.”¹ Also, it seems that those who wish to allegorize the book as a picture of God’s love for Israel only do so to conveniently avoid the intensely physical and erotic nature of the book.

Second, while many make no distinction between allegory and typology, there is a clear difference. The former seeks to impose a hidden spiritual meaning, while the latter seeks to identify a New Testament figure fulfillment of the Old Testament foreshadowing. Though the Old Testament routinely and frequently gives a typology of Christ, this does not seem to be the case with the Song of Songs. If the book were a foreshadowing of Christ it would seem that the New Testament writers would have identified it as such.

Third, the dramatic interpretation supposes that the book is a liturgical song or drama that was performed at a wedding ceremony. This interpretation has serious flaws. For example, “The long speeches, the lack of character development and of a plot developing to dramatic climax and resolution, all militate against the Song being considered ‘drama’.”²

Therefore, it seems that the literal, or, natural, approach to interpretation (i.e. erotic love between the lover and the beloved) is to be favored. This will be the presupposition of this author as the theme of this book is explored.

The one theme of romantic love will be explored with special attention being given to the poetic language that describes such love within the book of Song of Songs.

The “Pentecostal Manifestos” series is designed for a rising and outwardly-focused generation of Pentecostal scholarship. In this the fifth book of the collection, Nimi Wariboko, Katherine B. Stuart Professor of Christian Ethics at Andover Newton Theological School, provides a tightly written, appropriately focused book on humanity, transformation, and flourishing. In this book Wariboko carefully delineates the position between permanence and absence.

The book is divided into five parts. The first chapter providing a platform on which the central thesis of a Pentecostal Principle is established. Chapter two explains the methodology of an ethical approach. In the third chapter, Wariboko lays out the central paradigm informing his methodology; what consists in the ‘plurivocality’ of Pentecost. The fourth chapter uncovers the ontological dynamics of the Pentecostal principle, namely, the ‘Pentecostal Spirit.’ Finally, concerning the promise and future trajectory of the Pentecostal Principle, Wariboko suggests that the best way forward is a theology of play. A theology of the Holy Spirit concerned primarily with questions pertaining to pneumatic existence and the interior dynamics of the pneumatological imagination.

Wariboko builds principally on the Tillichian school of thought, meaning an analysis of the inter-connectedness of theology and economics. In this respect Wariboko draws on the principle of a new ethic and spirit for Christianity. Undergirding Wariboko’s position is an emphasis on the ‘theology of play,’ signifying creativity and lack of social conformism. This thesis is sustained and energized by a theology of the Third Article and the continuing, ongoing, mediated presence of Holy Spirit baptism. The lasting criterion of a Tillichian Protestant approach is emphasis on the divine-human relationship and the synthetical association between this principle and universality (Catholicity) of culture and existence.

Perhaps there is what Wariboko calls a Protestant ‘kairiotic’ approach, but there is indeed a gap between this reality and the function (signature) of existence. My one critique would be that the relationship between permanence and transience (finitude) is not always immediately evident; nevertheless, this hardly points to a methodological flaw. The work’s strength is Wariboko’s concerted effort to establish a connection between ‘particularity’ (individuality) and Catholicity. More than anything, a renewal methodology, rooted in the Pentecostal Principle is a “reflective response,” consisting in necessity and the interior crises of pluralism (129). The grace of the self-giving God is a genuine grace, freely given and freely received.

Reviewed by Paul J. Palma

Originally published on the Pneuma Foundation (parent organization of PneumaReview.com) website. Later included in the Fall 2013 issue.

Excerpts from Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts, by Craig S. Keener as appearing in Pneuma Review Fall 2013

“Are Miracles Possible?” by Craig S. Keener

“Miracle Accounts beyond Antiquity” by Craig S. Keener

“Miracle Accounts: Multicultural Approach” by Craig S. Keener

“Miracle Accounts: Majority World Perspectives” by Craig S. Keener

“Miracles and Medical Documentation” by Craig S. Keener

An excerpt from Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts, by Craig S. Keener. From Pneuma Review Fall 2013.

From the introduction to Part 3, “Miracle Accounts beyond Antiquity”

Pages 209-210

The principle of analogy once used to argue against all ancient miracles (either the occurrence of some sorts of extranormal phenomena or their supernatural causation) now undermines that very argument. In Hume’s day, many Protestant theologians distinguished sharply between biblical and postbiblical miracles as part of their anti-Catholic polemic. Their polemic played into the Humean argument against ancient miracles based on the lack of many comparable modern claims. Many theologians in turn accommodated this nonmiraculous approach, further emphasizing the lack of postbiblical miracles and eventually often renouncing miracles altogether.

Today, however, abundant claims of miracles, particularly from the Majority World, challenge Hume’s skepticism about the existence of many credible eyewitnesses. Hume demanded “a sufficient number” of witnesses of unquestioned integrity and intelligence who would have much to lose by testifying falsely.¹ In today’s academic climate, many who testify to miracles have much to lose even by testifying truly; but I shall first respond to Hume’s quantitative demand. In contrast to the environment assumed by Hume, today hundreds of millions of people claim to have witnessed miracles. Moreover, eyewitnesses claim what they believe are miracles even in the West, and this has been the case through most of history, even when Hume framed his argument within the theological framework of academic circles often reticent to acknowledge miraculous claims. Some of these eyewitness claims involve even the healing of blindness, the raising of the dead, and nature miracles. I will treat some of these subjects in turn in subsequent chapters: claims from the Majority World (chs. 7–9); Western history (ch. 10); the modern West (ch. 11); and some specifically dramatic claims like those involving blindness, death, or nature (ch. 12).

Virtually no one would suggest that all claims reflect clearly authentic miracles (see discussion in ch. 13). Nevertheless, such claims, however we interpret them, clearly exist on an eyewitness level and hence need not be excluded from first- and second-generation testimony in the Gospels and Acts. Statistics suggest the vast numbers of claims; my primary interest in chapters 7–12 is to illustrate some of the variety of sorts of cases involved in them. While the primary point of these chapters is not the interpretation of events, some of these reports may have a bearing on that question. At the least, given the vast number and variety of claims, one can no longer simply take for granted that uniform human experience a priori excludes extranormal events for which many observers would find a specifically theistic interpretation particularly persuasive (see discussion in chs. 13–15).

PR

This excerpt is from Craig S. Keener, Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts, 2 volumes, Baker Academic, a division of Baker Publishing Group, 2011. Used by permission. All rights to this material are reserved. Material is not to be reproduced, scanned, copied, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without written permission from Baker Publishing Group.

Footnotes appear in the full digital issue of Pneuma Review Fall 2013 and in the book from which this excerpt is derived.

From Pneuma Review Fall 2013.

Alan J. Delotavo, Back to the Original Church: The Secret Behind Church Movements (Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, 2010), 100 pages, 9781556355660.

Regular and careful Bible readers inevitably piece the Bible story together until they have a sense of the grand sweep of things. We do the same with the history of the church. Sometimes unconsciously, we jump from the Book of Acts directly to Martin Luther, then to Azusa Street, and finally to the present day. Delotavo fills in some of the blanks to draw out a valuable lesson that can only be seen from an overview.

Back to the Original Church is Delotavo’s University of Pretoria ThD thesis in popular form. This conversation about the flow and progress of church history calls us to see church movements as gifts to the wider church restoring something neglected and not stopping points or ends in themselves.

Delotavo provides examples of church movements that attempted to restore an essential part of church life or faith, but which became bogged down to the point of needing their own renewal. The Reformation era focused on the recovery of the gospel in view of accumulated abuses and theological “defects.” This gospel recovery included the teaching of “the priesthood of the believer,” that each Christian had direct access to God without the need of clergy. Delotavo points out that this set up a division between laity and Protestant clergy and also spawned a divisive spirit throughout the Reformation. Further splits occurred till today denominations around the world number into the thousands. The Lutheran church became State church (protected by law and supported by taxes) and fell into the sorry state of doctrinal correctness with experiential coldness. The Reformation had become an end in itself. To recover what was needed, Pietism arose about a century later. This was an attempt to bring vital Christian experience, including conversion, assurance and holiness back into the Lutheran state church. Once more the renewal movement, although truly helping many, lost its way. Splitting many ways, some parts impacted world missions and future movements, other parts become theologically liberal, and still other parts become radical or revolutionary.

Delotavo’s excellent point bogs down, however, in historical omissions and stretches. He jumps directly from the early church to the Reformation period. The era of the main church councils (AD 325—787) he considered a breakdown of Christianity due to political connections to the Roman Empire. The “Dark Ages” or better, the medieval church, is thought to have no value. He sees the church largely pursuing the expansion of Christian civilization at the expense of “genuine experience of salvation.” Delotavo seems to ignore that in the West, the church was living through the crushing of the Roman Empire under “barbarian” invasions; that in the East, Constantinople was rising to power as the new center of the Roman Empire; and that Islam was racing across North Africa, into Spain and southern France. He could have pulled examples of church movements from these periods that prove his point, but he did not. Does he not recognize the value of that period of the church’s life?

The way forward for Delotavo is found in American Evangelicalism. He noted that several awakenings or revivals had occurred in American history from colonial times, each a church movement in itself. By the end of the nineteenth century, modern Liberalism rapidly set in resulting in the backlash of Fundamentalism in the early twentieth century. In its original form, Fundamentalism was truly a church movement to recover much that was being lost; however, it degenerated into anti-intellectualism and a belligerent separatism. In the 1940s, a corrective movement, Evangelicalism, arose to call the church back to theological basics, to academic engagement, and to a loving spirit. Here, Delotavo believes, is the apex of church movements, breaking down all barriers, and penetrating all denominations and traditions. Here is what the church was meant to be at last! Delotavo forgets his own warning: church movements are means to an end (renewal for the entire church) not ends in themselves (the final best expression of the church). Is this the climax of church history?

From Pneuma Review Fall 2013.

Wolfgang Vondey, ed., Pentecostalism and Christian Unity, Volume 2 (Pickwick Publications, 2013), 301 pages, ISBN 9781620327180.

It can be a terrible thing when we believe that we ourselves are right and all others are wrong. Terrible, because it can reinforce an arrogance caused by insecurity, causing us to be unwilling or resistant towards the legitimate Biblical perspectives and insights of others. Sadly, ignorance of the basis of faith shared with others, whose experience of church culture is sometimes so foreign and different from ourselves, can lead to caricature and even misrepresentation, often on the basis of anecdotal reflections or bad personal experiences.

This book is for those who are prepared to view things a different way. It is the second volume in a series looking at Pentecostal involvement in cross-denominational discussions regarding the basis of Christian unity. It is intended as a source book and reference work, divided into two parts. Firstly, a selection of narratives that represent ecumenical dialogues in which Pentecostals have recently been involved. Secondly, a selection of official reports on conversations between Pentecostals and two major denomination groupings, as well as the fruit of a conversation between Oneness and Trinitarian Pentecostals.

But this book is useful for more than that. It illustrated one important function of Pentecostalism, which is moving the agenda from abstract and obtuse theological concepts and categories into ‘what is real is what is experienced’. It invites an engagement in an ecumenism that focuses on missional matters, and the exploration of experiential realities: what it means to enter faith, to grow in faith, or to receive the Holy Spirit.

The narratives in part 1 are valuable in showing how people, coming from diverse backgrounds, can find a ‘cross check’ in confirming the propriety of their Christian practices. For whether we readily recognise it or not, there is—at the theoretical, dogmatic level—not always a lot to choose between in the differing systematic theologies offered by competing traditions because of shared roots in historic Christianity, they are sometimes simply amended copies or slight variations of one another. It is at the level of practices that we see the difference. The value of these conversations is in how they lead us to reflect on what we do; and on why we do what we do.

This collection of records and documents is also a book providing a good resource for those looking for a way of finding a positive interface between Pentecostals and both Lutheran and Reformed, as well as Roman Catholics.

Reviewed by James Purves

by Wayne A. Grudem

Should Christians Expect Miracles Today? Objections and Answers from the Bible, Part 1

Should Christians Expect Miracles Today? Objections and Answers from the Bible, Part 2

Should Christians Expect Miracles Today? Objections and Answers from the Bible, Part 3

Should Christians Expect Miracles Today? Objections and Answers from the Bible, Part 4

From Pneuma Review Fall 2013.

Leonora Tubbs Tisdale, Prophetic Preaching: A Pastoral Approach (Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 138 pages, ISBN 9780664233327.

There are some occasions where the reader finishes a book unsure whether they should praise the author for writing a challenging and necessary work or criticise them for missing vital emphases. Prophetic Preaching is one of those books.

To begin with, the author’s definition of prophetic preaching is surprising. For Tisdale, “prophetic preaching” is not tied to any prediction of the future nor to speaking out any directly Spirit-inspired words but instead to preaching “based on prophetic biblical texts that call people to live into God’s vision for justice, peace, and equality in our world” (p. 3). What is presented then is a “social justice gospel” in much the same way that the preaching of some within certain Pentecostal traditions has been labelled a “prosperity gospel”. The rest of the book will provide ample evidence of both the potential and the danger of adding the phrase “social justice” in front of the gospel.

The first chapter covers a few definitions of “prophetic preaching”, before using these definitions as a basis for outlining seven hallmarks of this kind of preaching. These hallmarks range from an expression of the Biblical grounding of prophetic preaching (p. 10, point 1) to the corporate focus of prophetic preaching (p. 10, point 3). Reflecting what will be one of the most welcome arguments of the book, point seven points out that prophetic preaching “requires of the preacher a heart that breaks with the things that break God’s heart … and a strong reliance on the presence and power of the Holy Spirit” (p. 10). The chapter then ends with seven reasons for resistance to prophetic preaching. In six of these seven reasons, Tisdale covers ground that will be recognisable to many church leaders, including the insecurities than can render preaching less effective. What is most striking is the first reason, where Tisdale takes issue with models of Biblical interpretation that focus on evangelism over social justice (pp. 11-12). Many in Pentecostal churches would almost certainly take issue not only with her view that social justice better reflects “the heart of the gospel” than evangelism but also that such a view of the gospel “relegate[s] prophetic texts to the periphery of the Scriptures” (p. 11). These are arguments that will be returned to later.

In the second chapter the book really comes into its own, with its focus on “reclaiming a spirituality for activism” (p. 22). Tisdale’s appeal for a reconnection of silence and prophetic speech (pp. 22-23), individual and corporate aspects of biblical interpretation (pp. 28-32) and “prayer and prophetic witness” (pp. 32-35) all tackle issues that are key for the modern church. The overall theme of this chapter is a call for preachers to join together what the Bible says to each of us as individuals and what it says to us as a church or nation. The only issue in this chapter is the lack of an explicit appeal for preachers to call their congregants to reconnect their private and public service to God, an appeal which would obviously have strong biblical grounding (e.g. the book of Haggai, Isaiah 58 etc).

Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts

Why Miracles Happen Today

Miracles: Answer Skeptics

Miracles: Healing Blindness

Miracles: Medical Proof

Miracles: Raised from the Dead

Miracles: Mass Conversions

Miracles: Less Common in the West?

Miracles: John Wesley

Miracles: Keener’s Reflections

Excerpts from Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts as appearing in The Pneuma Review Fall 2013.

Craig Keener and M. Daniel Carroll Rodas, eds., Global Voices: Reading the Bible in the Majority World (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2013), 144 pages, ISBN 9781619700093.

The chapters that make up this book were originally papers that were presented at a meeting of the Institute for Biblical Research which was held in San Francisco, California in 2011. The authors of these chapters are scholars who come from a number of different ethnic backgrounds. The contributors to this book are: J. Ayodeji Adewuya, M. Daniel Carroll Rodas, Daniel K. Darko, David A. deSilva, Nijay Gupta, Craig S. Keener, Grant LeMarquand, Barbara M. Leung Lai, Osvaldo Padilla, Chloe Sun, Edwin M. Yamauchi, and K. K. Yeo.

The purpose of this book is to demonstrate the value and importance of multi-ethnic readings of Scripture. Multi-ethnic reading of Scripture means that Christians in one culture, or from one part of the world, listen to believers from other cultures or parts of the world, in order to learn how they “hear the text.” Such readings can help us gain a greater understanding of the Bible. All of us, regardless of who we are, read the Bible from a particular frame of reference; our culture, upbringing, etc. As a result, we may learn some very important things, but we may also miss some other important things. If we listen to one another then multi-ethnic readings of Scripture can help us draw out the riches of truth found in God’s Word.

A couple of examples from the book may be helpful at this point. Reading from a Hispanic diaspora perspective, M. Daniel Carroll Rodas alerts us to the possibility that Abram’s deception, regarding his wife Sarai (Gen. 12), may be an example of just what one may do in a potentially dangerous situation in order to cross a border. Those of us who have never crossed a border, especially in potentially dangerous circumstances, may miss this in the text because it has not been a part of our experience. The second example comes from Barbara M. Leung Lai. In her chapter she views Daniel’s experiences as instructive to us as a survival manual. She looks at Daniel’s private life and how that impacts his public life. Her examination of the biblical text is very insightful. These examples show us that multi-cultural readings of Scripture can help us to uncover our blind spots and see truth that we might otherwise miss.

This book brings a very important topic to the surface, one that needs to be addressed, because Christianity is a global religion. Multi-ethnic readings of Scripture are especially important because Christianity is growing by leaps and bounds in the majority world. I did not find this book especially easy to read. However, I think that the main point that the book makes is vitally important. We have the Bible, and we have the Spirit, but we need one another as well. The Bible is best interpreted in the community of faith, in the global community of faith.

Reviewed by John P. Lathrop