The Unseen Husband: A Survey of the Song of Solomon (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781597556743)

I'm known as DISRAELI in one corner of the internet, where I write on matters theological, so I'm keeping the name for the sake of the continuity.

I've studied at Oxford and London universities, with qualifications in History, Divinity, and Church History. I was brought up in the Church of England, drifting away from Christian beliefs as a teenager. I entered college as an avowed atheist, but God found ways of calling me back to a more evangelical faith.

I am the son of two schoolteachers and the grandson of another one. The legacy of this kind of bloodline is a built-in "mission to explain". That is what took me online, and this book is part of the result.

The premise of this work is that the Song of Solomon reflects a crisis in the marriage of Israel and her God. In the traumatic experience of the Babylonian Exile, the distressed wife Israel searches for the God who seems to have left her, and grieves over his absence. She remembers when they enjoyed his Creation together. Meanwhile the persevering, faithful, husband is pouring out reassurance of his continuing love and his presence by her side. His task is made more difficult because, of course, she cannot see him. She will not be convinced until she learns once more to recognise his voice.