John Goldingay

Love Is as Fierce as Death A recent movie tells the story of Edward VIII, who reigned as king of the United Kingdom for 325 days in 1936. Before coming to the throne he had fallen for a woman called Wallis Simpson who had not only committed the sin of being an American but also h…

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Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - I Belong to My Love, and His Desire Is toward Me

by SPCK - John Goldingay

I Belong to My Love, and His Desire Is toward Me I once had to review a commentary on the Song for a journal. The author assumed that the Song is about the relationship between a man and a woman and dismissed the idea that under the surface it’s about the relationship between Chr…

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Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Nightmares and Dreams (2)

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Nightmares and Dreams (2) My wife and I both have recurrent features of our dreams. Kathleen’s dreams tend to be frightening—yesterday in her dream she fell under a car. In my dreams, more often than not an incidental feature is that I am pushing my first wife, Ann, in her wheelc…

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Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Crazy for Love (2)

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Crazy for Love (2) I was amused when a friend who (like me) had fallen in love when he was of mature age asked me for advice about his sexual relationship with his fiancée, who was also of mature age…

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Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Nightmares and Dreams (1)

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Nightmares and Dreams (1) A student of mine from southern Africa once gave me an account of aspects of her life at home. In homestead life in her grandparents’ day, her grandfather had eleven wives; each had six to ten children. His wives’ huts stood in a half-moon, his in the ce…

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Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - My Love Is Mine, and I Am His

by SPCK - John Goldingay

My Love Is Mine, and I Am His One of my best friends when I was a teenager, having exhausted the dating possibilities in our youth fellowship, started going out with a girl from another church, and I commented that she was rather plain compared with some of the girls he had gone …

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Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's

by SPCK - John Goldingay

The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's A couple of years ago, when we were planning to get married in the month of December, I initially assumed we would honeymoon somewhere tropical like Bali…

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Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - One Ecclesiastes Is Good, but One Is Enough

by SPCK - John Goldingay

One Ecclesiastes Is Good, but One Is Enough Yesterday a student came to see me because he’s having a hard time with my course on the Psalms and with his academic work in general. He wasn’t concerned to make excuses but just wanted me to understand what was going on…

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Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Enjoy Your Life Mindful of Your Creator

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Enjoy Your Life Mindful of Your Creator I remember the first time I heard Ray Charles perform. Having been blind for many years, he had to be guided toward the piano, but he needed much more help than his blindness alone would have required…

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Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - The Distressing Dynamics of Wisdom and Power

by SPCK - John Goldingay

The Distressing Dynamics of Wisdom and Power Several days a week I find myself reporting to my wife something from the news with the explicit or implicit comment, “How can people be so stupid?” This week it’s the fact that Western forces in Afghanistan had burned some copies of t…

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Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Remember You Are Going to Die, and it May Be Sooner than You Think

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Remember You Are Going to Die, and it May Be Sooner than You Think I’d like to finish writing The Old Testament for Everyone, but I’m not taking for granted that I will. I need another year, and who knows whether I’ll get one?…

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Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - I Have Not Found A Woman

by SPCK - John Goldingay

I Have Not Found A Woman I just had a message from a young friend who will be in town next week and wants to come to see us. It’s only a few months since she emailed to tell us that she had maybe found the man of her dreams, a man whose instincts about Christian ministry match he…

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Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Be Realistic

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Be Realistic Reading the line in Ecclesiastes 4 about a triple cord not breaking quickly, I remembered an occasion in seminary when I gave our professor of preaching a hard time for using that line to support the idea that a sermon ought to have three points…

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Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - It's Not Enough, but It's Not Nothing

by SPCK - John Goldingay

It's Not Enough, but It's Not Nothing One sunny January day some years ago I came home after a lecture and wheeled my disabled wife down to the row of shops where there was a magnificent ice cream parlor that alas subsequently closed down (evidently we didn’t go there enough)…

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Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Sell Your Tongue, and Buy a Thousand Ears

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Sell Your Tongue, and Buy a Thousand Ears 1Watch your steps as you go to God’s house. Drawing near to listen is better than the giving of a sacrifice by stupid people, because they don’t acknowledge that they are doing something evil…

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Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - If Two People Lie Together, They Can Be Warm

by SPCK - John Goldingay

If Two People Lie Together, They Can Be Warm A friend of mine lost his wife some years ago and got married again to a family friend within three months. I was both worried and sympathetic (he had been looked after too well by his first wife and had no idea how to cook), but it ha…

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Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - There's No Justice

by SPCK - John Goldingay

There's No Justice I’ve just been invited to a baby shower, a party where you give gifts to a couple expecting a baby…

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Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Everything Has Its Time

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Everything Has Its Time Relatively early in the Vietnam War, folk singer Pete Seeger wrote a song called “Turn! Turn! Turn!” with the closing line, “I swear it’s not too late.” Everything else in the song comes from the poem in Ecclesiastes 3, lightly rearranged. In the 1960s, wh…

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