we can neither tear our eyes from nor in our finitude bear to look at, and that just so is “mystery.” But in the Song’s allegory—and indeed in the Scriptures generally—it is not so much God who is fascinating and terrible for us, as we who are fascinating and terrible for God. God is fascinated by what is not God: he calls it into being and thereafter will not leave it alone. And he is overwhelmed in his fascination, even unto death on a cross. As to whether the biblical God, in more normal fashion,