Despite its chequered interpretational history, the book of Shîr ha-Shîrîm (Song of Songs) in the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament has still not come to its fullest religious potential. The reason is that it has mainly served relatively closed religious traditions defined by the exclusion of those that have reacted against it. As the text of Song of Songs itself does not explicitly testify to any religiosity, these communities have understood it religiously by projecting their own predetermined needs and beliefs onto it. The text does, however, suggest several layers in the history of its formation, representing different levels of consciousness and stages of religiosity. In the postmodern globalising context where the importance of interfaith understanding is increasingly realised and the nature of human religiosity is constantly redefined in terms of ever-broadening horizons, the religiosity of the book has been stretched as wide as possible by also taking into consideration the ancient contextual influences which could have left their traces on the unconscious mind of its author(s) and redactor(s). To this end, the transpersonal psychological theory of Kenneth Wilber as interpreted by Michael Washburn has been used. Wilber’s inclusive view of religiosity respects all its forms as developmentally appropriate expressions of experiences of the divine which should all be taken seriously. The explicit “absence” of the divine in Song of Songs has been so conspicuous that it has ironically made it more present and led to a greater search for the Ineffable whose whispering and footprints are discernible in relation to the level of consciousness. Exploring the religiosity of Song of Songs in this way then becomes an exercise in being more sensitive to the presence of the divine in all other areas of life as well. Traditional polarities such as sexuality and religiosity are dissolved at the same time and proven to coincide as two aspects of the same experience. Not only does erotic love open one’s eyes to the divine in nature as the body of God, but one also encounters the divine in the body. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / D. Th. (Old Testament)

This thesis is concerned with, in the words of Song of Songs, finding an appropriate answer to Qohelet's vanity - vanity of a human life and things that inherently come with it, as Qohelet himself proclaims in his book. The first chapter introduces the Book of Qohelet and aims to capture the main themes of vanity and transience, while also providing the ways out from this situation, as presented by Qohelet. The second chapter introduces the reader to the Song of Songs book while also describing its content which concerns the interpretation of love between a man and a woman. The third chapter brings forward efforts of the author and the main themes and conclusions of the book are analysed. This allows - in the conclusion of this thesis - to answer the question of whether the love in the Songs of Songs is a possible answer to Qoheleth's vanity - the transience of a human life, as brought out by Qohelet in his work.