Customer Reviews

What Matters Most: Ten Lessons in Living Passionately from the Song of Solomon

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In WHAT MATTERS MOST, Renita Weems takes an in-depth look at the Song of Solomon from the Old Testament of the Bible. Early on, she notes that this particular book is unique in several ways; it is essentially made up of love poems that might be considered by some to be bordering on erotic and God is never explicitly mentioned. Another important way in which the Song of Solomon is unique is the fact that it is the only book of the Bible that is predominantly told from a woman's point of view. Like many other women in the Bible, we don't learn a lot of biographical information about the Shulammite who narrates most of the Song of Solomon. Weems argues however, that the poetry itself provides us with enough information to know that this unnamed Shulammite woman is one of the earliest examples of a strong, black, Christian woman.

Aside from providing the history, background, and controversy surrounding the various interpretations of the Song of Solomon, the author uses the personality characteristics she derived about the Shulammite woman to create a blue print for women of color. This blueprint will help women learn to love themselves more fully and to truly take to heart the things that should matter most in life. She argues that as women, so often we get so caught up in helping other people and being what they need us to be that we neglect our individual need to grow and thrive. She goes on to note that in order to be open to the love that God has for us we must be willing to break the mold, shatter stereotypes, and embrace all aspects of ourselves. She covers such subjects as identity, balance, sexuality, body image and overcoming adversity, using the Song of Solomon and her own experiences to illustrate her key points. At the end of each chapter she poses questions for self-reflection which she encourages readers to write about on their own.

This is the kind of book that will make you think. I found myself thinking "Wow! I do that all the time!" While I may not agree with all of her reasoning, I enjoyed the fact that it challenged me both mentally and spiritually. This book would be an excellent book to discuss as a group and is sure to incite some heated debates. (...)

Renita, pulled together all her wisdom for women and poured into this book. It's her best ever. Its for the teenager coming into her own to the senior woman who still has unanswered questions about her choices in the past and the future. Every woman of color should have this book. It's a right of passage. Its the best gift you can give a sistah friend.

I read this book in one of my Women Bible Study Groups and it was an awesome book for the group. I love the author of this book.

This book did not inspire me because it was too boring to read from the Introduction to whatever page I just gave up on it. I am sure it will inspire some women...I just wasn't one of them.

Professor Renita Weems is one of the most original thinkers on the Song of Solomon. She courageously and correctly identifies the poet as a woman protesting the cultural boundaries of her day.The best part of the book is the way in which the author explains why the lessons in this ancient love poem are so relevant today in the lives of "modern women" facing day to day problems.

Nevertheless, the work is stained by prejudice. The author
insists over and over again that the heroine of the poem is
a "black-skinned woman" without ever considering that the
reference to "blackness" may be metaphorical as it is in the Book of Job. Indeed in other parts of the Song of Solomon, the maiden is called "white" in Hebrew, she is described as "fair", and her neck is compared to an "ivory tower." A better analysis than jumping to the conclusion that the Shulamite is African is to say that the Shulamite is both white and black, the colors of the moon. This would link the heroine of the poem to the symbol of the eternal feminine.