The Venerable Bede—On the Song of Songs and Selected Writings

Publication Data: New York, NY/Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2011
Format: hardcover
Number of Pages: xviii + 360
Dimensions (l × w × h): 23.6 cm × 16.3 cm × 2.8 cm
Additional Information: black-and-white illustrations
ISBN: 978‒0‒8091‒0591‒5

   
Translated, Edited, and Introduced by Arthur Holder
Preface by Benedicta Ward

A volume of The Classics of Western Spirituality: A Library of the Great Spiritual Masters

“The texts translated in this volume are selections taken from three different works and represent only a small portion of the many volumes that Bede wrote. Consonant with his emphasis on the chronology of salvation history, the volume begins with an Old Testament commentary, moves next to homilies on the New Testament, and finally concludes with the history of the Christian church in Bede’s own land. On the Song of Songs is one of the earliest complete Latin Christian commentaries on the Old Testament book that Bede called ‘most difficult to understand,’ which he interpreted in accordance with ancient tradition as a dramatic dialogue depicting the love relationship between Christ and the church. The Homilies on the Gospels are sermons on the gospel texts appointed to be read on certain Sundays and feast days in the liturgical year; here Bede shows himself to be an effective preacher and monastic theologian. Finally, the Ecclesiastical History of the English People tells how the coming of his own Anglo-Saxon people to Britain and their conversion to Christianity was but another chapter in the long history of humankind’s salvation as ordained by Divine Providence. The selections from that work translated here describe the two great Christian missionary efforts (one Roman, one Celtic) to Bede’s native Northumbria, along with his portraits of some great early Celtic and Anglo-Saxon saints (Oswald, Aidan, Hild, Cædmon, and Cuthbert) and a vivid account of the otherworldly journey of a man named Dryhthelm.”
—“Foreword”

CONTENTS

   Foreword
   Preface
   Introduction
   Abbreviations
PART ONE
On the Song of Songs
      Book 1
      Book 2
      Book 3
      Book 4
      Book 5
PART TWO
Homilies on the Gospels
      Homily 1.19: After Epiphany
      Homily 1.22: In Lent
      Homily 2.25: On the Dedication of a Church
PART THREE
Ecclesiastical History of the English People
      Selections
   Notes
   Selected Bibliography
   Index