Dr. Elaine T. James

Dr. Elaine T. James

Princeton Theological Seminary

Dr. Elaine T. James is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary. Her research interests are in biblical Hebrew poetry, the idea of art in the ancient world, and hermeneutical issues of land and gender. She is the author of Landscapes of the Song of Songs: Poetry and Place (Oxford University Press, 2017), and co-editor of Biblical Poetry and the Art of Close Reading with J. Blake Couey (Cambridge University Press, 2018) and is currently completing a handbook on Biblical poetry for Oxford University Press. She holds the Ph.D. in Old Testament from Princeton Theological Seminary.

Last Updated: November 10, 2026

Articles by Author

The Poetry of Beauty: What Does it Mean to See the Beloved?

The Poetry of Beauty: What Does it Mean to See the Beloved?

Three descriptive poems in the Song of Songs wrestle with the experience of being in the beloved’s presence. In each case, the woman’s body is described using layered landscape imagery and complex, overlapping angles of vision. These poems ask us to consider what it means to see.