1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910155112203321

Autore

Zhang Sarah

Titolo

I, You, and the Word “God” : Finding Meaning in the Song of Songs / / Sarah Zhang

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Winona Lake, Indiana : , : Eisenbrauns, , [2016]

©[2016]

ISBN

1-57506-476-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (195 pages) : illustrations

Collana

Siphrut : literature and theology of the Hebrew Scriptures ; ; 20

Disciplina

223/.906

Soggetti

RELIGION - Biblical Studies - Wisdom Literature

RELIGION - Biblical Studies - Old Testament

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Nota di contenuto

Title; Contents; Preface and Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; Introduction; Chapter 1: Theory; Chapter 2: Oneself as Awakened Sensibility (Song 4:1-7); Chapter 3: Restlessness and Responsibility for the Other; Chapter 4: "The Human Form Divine"; So to Speak; Bibliography; Index of Authors; Index of Scripture.

Sommario/riassunto

"I, You, and the Word "God" introduces the approach of lyrical ethics, inspired by Emmanuel Levinas's ethical-phenomenological philosophy. Through the optics of lyrical ethics, the reader discovers how the ancient erotic poems of the Song of Songs bear ethical and theological significance for contemporary readers. Levinas's intertwined concepts--oneself qua sensibility, otherness perceived through responsibility, and transcendence embodied in one's love for the other--reveal themselves as lyrical colors woven into the fabric of Song 4:1-7, 5:2-8, and 8:6. More importantly, Levinas's understanding that poetic language breaks the tautology of logocentric discourse and gestures to the outside of consciousness provides the theoretical ground for the listener to solicit meaningfulness from the Song. Through this lyrical reading of the selected poetic units, the book demonstrates that the traditional interpretive methods of representative description, narrative paraphrase, and thematic



distillation fail to encounter the otherness of poetry. In contrast, lyrical ethics pays attention to that which transcends consciousness: the awakening of the reader's subjectivity, the saying underlying the said, the sound of the sense, and the invisibility of the visible. The Song so caressed reveals in human love the purposelessly purposive encounter with God"--