There are many great books in the Bible that have had great consequence for human thought, history, and personal living. But my own two personal favorites share the same attribution, someone with whom I’ve always felt a kinship. Everyone finds some person or story in the Bible that speaks to them personally, there’s such a huge variety. For me, the two greatest books that I can never say enough about are Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes.
My only complaint is that these are probably the most unappreciated and poorly understood books in the entire Bible. People just can’t seem to deal with them. They don’t know what to do with them. They need to make excuses for them being included in the Bible, find ways to explain them away as something other than what they are. They offend the sensibilities of many. But to me they’re the most precious jewels in the treasury of Biblical literature, and you impoverish yourself by not accepting the gifts they offer.
So I would like, at the offset, to absolutely repudiate all the gnostic literature that tries to explain away or reinterpret or hide or shame or obscure them. Can you make a leap from the primary content and relate it to other subjects and matters? Certainly. But in addition to, not instead of.
You can draw a lot of lessons about business management from the Sermon on the Mount. You could write a whole series of books about it, because Jesus has insight into life and value and the human condition, and that wisdom has broad applicability. That doesn’t mean that the sermons of Jesus were about business management. And if you focus on that aspect of their applicability to the exclusion of their primary intent and subject matter, then you’ve got a serious problem. You’re using them, not receiving them. You have to love them and want to listen to them first before you start wielding them as tools of your personal preferences and interests.
And far too few theologians through the years have properly loved these books in the way that the Bible demands simply by including them in the scriptures. These are essential, remarkable, ancient books about two of the greatest mysteries of life: love and the human condition. I suppose you could call them the romantic dilemma and the existential dilemma. What does love mean and what does life mean? That’s plenty to be concerned about. You can bring in all sorts of metaphors about the Jews, the Church, and whatever else you want. But you don’t need to. There’s plenty of deep material of ultimate significance to human life that anyone in Earth could identify with.
So go to these books and spend some time with them. They’re not long. Take some time to really take them in. And if you have an opinion about the Bible as a whole, maybe readjust your understanding of it in light of the fact of these two long-celebrated books. Personally, I think they stand entirely on their own merits and should be read as important poetic and philosophical texts, even outside their religious significance. Love and death are waiting for you in their pages. So go greet them and kiss them on the mouth.
Making Nobody Happy 