I recently finished Tommy Nelson's "The Book of Romance: What Solomon Says About Love, Sex, and Intimacy." This is a book that I really wanted to really like, but in the end I only sorta like. I was hoping and expecting that the book would be, at least to some degree, a commentary on the Song of Solomon; it is not. It doesn't interact with the Hebrew text, doesn't deal with interpretive issues, doesn't do any of the normal things commentaries do. Nelson lightly treats the text and pulls from it only the simplest, highest level interpretation; that is, the subject matter of the book is at best loosely based upon the text. I want more.
What is the book about? More than anything it's biblical, fatherly advice given to those who are dating and thinking about marriage. It's the wisdom of an older man given with a biblical world view and organized around subjects like dating, courting, communication, conflict resolution, sexual promiscuity, and so on. As such, the book is decent. I suppose if I approached this book expecting it simply to be a collection of good advice, then I would have been less disappointed. I might recommend this book.
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