In her book Conspicuous in His Absence: Studies in the Song of Songs and Esther, Chloe T. Sun addresses the theological question of the absence of God. Sun innovatively chooses to bring Song of Songs and Esther in conversation with one another to address this theological query due to the lack of direct mention of God. Her approach to these books is a theological one, characterized by an interest in “the word and works of God” (p. 3). Two questions in particular shape Sun’s theological approach to these texts: What is the text’s theologic and what is its cosmo-logic? (p. 3). By asking these questions, Sun seeks to find what the two texts have to say about God’s character, the relationship between God and the world, and humanity’s place in that relationship.
The first two chapters of the book situate the conversation about divine absence in the larger framework...
