The Song of Songs is a theological work in its literal sense. For centuries this was recognized by the overwhelming majority of its readers. Yet, in the argument of this study the Song is neither an allegory of divine-human love, nor a mere human love song. Rather, by adopting a symbolic language, the Song is able to express the realities of divine love in and through human love, thereby giving full expression to both dimensions. In order to substantiate and advance this view, this study introduces a new hermeneutical refinement into the discussion, giving careful consideration to different orders of textual meaning (i.e. "metaphor", "allegory", and "symbol") in order to better understand what precisely we mean in speaking of the sensus literalis. The success of this symbolic approach owes much to its diachronic method. In particular, it is able to assimilate a redactional analysis of the Song's composition in which the personage of Solomon plays a remarkable and increasingly significant role (i.e. "Solomonic Redaction"). This prominence of Israel's legendary king is plotted within an identifiable ancient Near Eastern royal ideology marked by an unmistakably religious orientation. This ideology in turn opens the door to a phenomenology of the kingship symbol by which certain aporias are resolved and the poetics of the text recover their full force.
