If there was a “bestseller” book of the Bible in the European Middle Ages, it would be the Song of Songs. When read allegorically, in the manner of medieval theologians like St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the book tells the story of the romance between Christ and the soul that culminates in Christ’s love shown on the cross. This is a story of mutual pursuit, the pain of desire and sacrifice, sensual delight, and true union. The idea of Jesus as a longing lover of each individual soul appeared everywhere by the later medieval period, in art, poetry, sermons, and the devotional writings of men and women alike.

These themes and images can strike us as strange, even uncomfortable. An illustrated poem for nuns depicted the Song of Songs like a cartoon strip. Prayer books of wealthy nobles portrayed Christ’s wounds intimately. Poets wrote Christ in the role of a chivalric, wounded knight weeping and waiting for his lady. And yet, examining this ancient imagery of Jesus our Lover together can challenge us to greater vulnerability with our Savior, to refreshed understandings of God’s hospitality, and, in the words of Pope Gregory the Great, can set our hearts “on fire with a holy love.”

Grace Hamman, PhD (Duke University), is a writer and independent scholar of late medieval poetry and contemplative writing. She is the author of Jesus through Medieval Eyes: Beholding Christ with the Artists, Mystics, and Theologians of the Middle Ages. Her work has been published by academic and popular outlets, including Plough Quarterly and the Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. Grace also hosts a podcast called Old Books with Grace, which celebrates the beauty and joy found in reading the literature and theology of the past. She lives near Denver, Colorado, with her husband and three young children. Read more about her work at gracehamman.com.