I love digging into parts of the Bible that are underexplored. As an archaeological excavation can uncover layer upon layer of ancient civilizations hiding just beneath the earth's surface, so the trowel of careful study and exegesis can unearth layers of meaning that have long been overlooked. So it is with the five brief biblical books we will study in this volume. The book of Ruth is familiar to many Christians as a story of love and devotion--but not for its deeper significance. Esther is a lesser known heroine whose story is more convoluted and troubling than it appears. The Song of Songs, with its frank eroticism, has frightened pious clerics into masking its message with allegory, while the dark books of Lamentations and Ecclesiastes may send readers fleeing to higher literary ground lest they become too deeply enmeshed in the hard questions of life. Our purpose in these Bible studies is to tackle these texts as they have come to us, digging beneath surface pleasantries to discover the clever, hopeful, skeptical, sorrowful, delightful, and sometimes naked characters beneath. In doing so, we may see new things, think new thoughts, and seize the opportunity to appreciate the scriptures even more. ---John D. Pierce, Publisher Nurturing Faith, Inc.