Charlie Cleverly

The Song of Songs – Insightful

Charlie Cleverly is not only a Church of England minister of a busy evangelical parish but he is becoming one of the most insightful, intelligent, open and honest contemporary Christian writers. With the Song of Songs not only has he written about the shortest book in the Bible, but along with Book of Revelation the most misunderstood and least studied books in the Bible.

Song of Songs is part of the Wisdom Literature of the Bible, the others being Job, Psalms, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes but is the book that often confuses those who study it. Even when I studied Theology it is one of the few books of the Bible we did not take a long hard look at, it was as if it was mentioned in dispatches, but Cleverly tackles this ignorance and opens the book up.

The first dilemma Cleverly challenges is what is the Song of Songs is it a poem, a song or is it more of a part-mystical devotional, part-marriage handbook, part-sex manual. So how should Christians and theologians look at this intense and beautiful book? In this book Clevely advances the idea that is should be approached in a more allegorical approach, by doing this one opens one’s mind and the foretelling of the New Testament, Jesus and the Church.

Cleverly also advances the idea that in the modern sexual age that we now live in and that surrounds us in all aspects of the media, then Song of Songs is the most apt book from the Bible. As the Song of Songs is the most sexual, and sensual book of the Bible, a book that has not only confused Christian writers and thinkers but also Jewish writers and thinkers. These challenges are what makes Song of Songs so interesting, challenging for us now and our earlier brethren. The Church has often accept the allegorical aspects of the book, accepting it as a pointer towards the coming of Christ, whereas in this devotional Cleverly opens the Songs up to the qualities of human love.

I call this a devotional rather than a commentary, in that while breaking the eight chapters of Songs down in to eighteen chapters, there is a more practical aspect to this book. What I enjoy and liked, and many more writers should copy this idea, the Spiritual exercises which we all need.

I would advise anyone to pick up a copy of this book and use it as a devotional and open up a whole new way of thinking and approaching the Song of Songs. For me this book is insightful and breaks down a number of barriers and has opened my eyes to a new way of thinking about Song of Songs.… (altro)