Product Description

Based on four lectures she is currently given, this book is in the tradition of Margaret Barker's "Temple Theology" (sold 2202) - smaller and more accessible than her series of mighty tomes. Subjects covered include the Jerusalem temple, the Enoch traditions (the role of theosis - the human becoming divine - which is central to Orthodox theology, the original meaning of the Son of God and the role of Knowledge/wisdom in all this); the High Priesthood (including Melchizedek, and Jesus as Melchizedek in "Hebrews", as the resurrected priest, the bringer of the Kingdom, as in the "Dead Sea Scrolls"); the "Revelation" - the coming of the Kingdom and how these pre-Christian visions inspired Jesus' own preaching of the Kingdom. Lastly, there is a chapter on what the Church did with the idea of the Kingdom and what it means now, including environmental significance.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #108429 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

About the Author
Margaret Barker is a well-known and high-selling author and former president of the Society for Old Testament study. She is a member of the ecumenical Patriarch's Symposium on Religion, Science and the Environment and a Methodist Local Preacher.

Customer Reviews

A persistent feeling of coming in part-way through a conversation...
Having some familiarity with Meg Barker's work on the Old Testament, I was intrigued by the ideas behind this work (and her other works on a similar theme). And the central idea - that there is a suppressed tradition describing the Kingdom of God in which the Jewish temple and Holy of Holies were symbolic of wider, deeper realities - comes through clearly enough. But I found Barker's style overly dense, and quite disorganised. This typically means that a chapter's core idea is only articulated three-quarters of the way through, being preceded by an assumption that the reader is already fully acquainted with the writer's scheme of thought. This gives one an unnerving sense of stumbling into a conversation part-way through. And whilst Barker's schema explains well some otherwise obscure New Testament phrases, I can't help feeling that an argument resting on abstractions from long-vanished architectural features of the temple is far too recherché to find much resonance with `Kingdom' talk among Jesus' followers today, whatever the book's back-cover `blurb' may claim.

Thrilling
This is the third of Margaret Barker's books that I've read. Never less than compelling, it's 128 pages weave together threads from earlier books and are packed with *ideas*, and it's this that makes the book quite a slow read - the words are short enough, but there are a lot of thoughts in this book.