Margaret Barker to visit St Paul’s Theological Centre

Tomorrow we at St Paul's (and St Mellitus) have the privilege of enjoying Margaret Barker as a guest lecturer on our second year Bible and Theology course. She will speak about Temple theology. Here are some of the facts that I will mention by way of introduction, much of which is adapted from her own webpage:

• She read theology at the University of Cambridge, and now has approximately 13 books to her name. And there is a new book either to be or just freshly published, namely Christmas. The Original Story.
  
• In July 2008 Margaret Barker was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree by the Archbishop of Canterbury 'in recognition of her work on the Jerusalem Temple and the origins of Christian Liturgy, which has made a significantly new contribution to our understanding of the New Testament and opened up important fields for research.'

Something about the things she has been involved with.

• In 1998 she was greatly honoured and elected President of the Society for Old Testament Study.
  
• She is currently the Editor of the Society's Monograph Series.
  
• 1997, she has been part of the symposium Religion, Science and the Environment, convened by the Orthodox Church's Archbishop of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch.

Pretty impressive, really. While I personally disagree with quite a few of her proposals, there is no doubting that she is a uniquely creative author, spotting all kinds of interesting conceptual connections that all the rest have not even noticed. And the breadth of her grasp of the primary literature is simply stunning. I’ll try to remember to take some snaps!