The T & T Clark Blog

What can we learn from the Early Church II: Martin Warner

 Here is part two of our mini series about what we can learn from the Early Church.

This contribution comes from Martin Warner, Professor of Philosophy in the University of Warwick, England.

Destabilizing received wisdom

To the question ‘What can we learn from the Early Church?’ one plausible answer is ‘To destabilize received wisdom’. This proposal can be construed on at least two different levels, the doctrinal and the conceptual; I’ll take each in turn.

At the level of doctrine, reading the early Fathers can help us to see ways of understanding the Christian faith rather different from those with which we are familiar. And here the paths once again fork, diverging between what one might perhaps over-simply call the orthodox and the heretical. Along the former path we find ways of thinking that have been marginalized, at least in the inheritance of the Latin West though less so in Eastern Christendom, but remain as available options which may have a more significant role to play in the context of today’s Western culture. Consider the doctrine of original sin.

From the Mystery Plays to serious theology, a significant part of its Biblical grounding has been found in the story of the Fall of Adam and Eve, construed – as St Augustine construed it – as a catastrophic event, disrupting God’s plan, plunging us into sin, from which we are only redeemed by Christ’s sacrifice. However for St Irenaeus, as those here who have studied philosophy of religion will know, ‘man was created as an … immature creature who was to undergo moral development and growth and finally be brought to the perfection intended for him by his maker’; Adam’s Fall is seen as an ‘understandable lapse … in the childhood of the race … due to weakness and immaturity’, and our world as one of ‘mingled good and evil as a divinely appointed environment’ for our development towards the divine goal. (John Hick Evil and the God of Love, pp.220-1)

Religious Diversity in Ancient Israel and Judah

I am excited to announce the release of this new book aimed at both scholars and students which explores the pluriformity of religious belief in Ancient Israel and Judah. A book such as this on diversity is, I think, long overdue in the field and we are very lucky to be able to publish such a volume. The book, which is edited by Francesca Stavrakopoulou (star of Channel 4 - see the new series on The History of the Bible) and John Barton, has received high praise already from people far better equipped to judge than I:

‘This remarkable volume represents the eye of the storm in current biblical scholarship’

Bernhard Lang

‘Contributors present here a wide range of religious practices diversified geographically, topographically, and sociologically, in the process illuminating many fascinating by-ways of scholarship. The editors and contributors are to be congratulated on putting together a composite image of religion in practice under the rubric of religious diversity. This is a book not to be missed.’

Joseph Blenkinsopp, University of Notre Dame, USA.

‘In this timely volume, leading scholars from various countries and traditions address key aspects of the religious pluriformity of ancient Israel and Judah. They present a wide readership with fine essays on the highly diverse religious culture(s) of the 'land of the Bible', based on methodologically sound, critical explorations of the relevant biblical texts and ancient artefacts. This collection is an excellent contribution to the current lively debate on the religious history of Israel and Judah, providing its readers with significant, provocative insights and much food for thought.’

Joachim Schaper, University of Aberdeen, UK.

Available to order in the UK now and in the US in a couple of months.

M.D. Goulder

I haven't posted for a while, so it is a shame to begin 2010 with sad news.

Most of you will already know of M.D. Goulder's death early in January. However, I wanted to put a post up recognising it, and him, myself.

I think it is perhaps a rare thing for the prose of an academic book to soar so effortlessly that the reader is moved to laughter. When such brilliance is mixed with penetrating, and original scholarly insight, it takes scholarship to level of true greatness. M.D. Goulder had the rare gift of being able achieve this mix. Whilst not all would agree with everything he wrote, I think few would doubt its originality and value.

I noticed, around the time of Goulder's death, at the SOTS conference in Cambridge, that Sheffield Phoenix publish a volume of his memoirs. Whilst I shouldn't really put in a plug for the competition I for one will be buying a copy, it is sure to provide excellent reading.

Now out: A Theology of Love

This must be the most beautiful cover on our current list: Werner G. Jeanrond's beautiful new book A Theology of Love .

It has just published in the UK and will be available in the US soon. Last week, we had a wonderful book launch in the University of Glasgow, Scotland. This was particularly exciting for a number of reasons: Werner's good friend, Björn Larsson, novelist and professor of French literature at the University of Lund in Sweden gave a fascinating talk on "What is the point of writing and reading love novels" - very inspiring! The place was packed with many people from the faculty of theology and religious studies in Glasgow - and beyond. And then it was the first launch for a T&T Clark book at a Scottish university after many years. A joyful event indeed!

Among other topics, Werner Jeanrond's book deals with the institutions of love. Here is a short excerpt from the beginning of chapter seven:

Love and Learning

Love can be learned. At various stages of our life we subject ourselves to new learning experiences in the vast field of love. Love is not instinctual behaviour, but a praxis resulting from cultural processes in which each human being passively and actively participates. While only few visit specialised schools of love, all women, men and children can be said to be emerging disciples of love in the different “schools of life”. Unlike sex, politics, household management, etc., love is not a subject on the school curriculum, yet it relates to all aspects of our lives and it requires learning. The Christian insistence that love ought to be at the centre of all human relationships implies that no specialised approach to one or the other aspect of our relational existence would ever be able to capture the full extent of the potential and praxis of love.

All Feminist Companions to be brought back into print in 2010!

Feminist Companion Series

The Feminist Companion to the Bible Series, edited by Athalya Brenner (with Carole R. Fontaine as co-editor in 3 volumes) has long been regarded as the most respected series outlining feminist approaches to the Hebrew Bible.

The volumes contained within the series (published in two parts, originally by Sheffield Academic Press) represent a valuable distillation of scholarship in this area, but more than this they challenge our readings of biblical material and often result in a paradigmatic shift in the way texts are interpreted. Interpretation of the book of Ruth, for example, has been turned on its head by feminist bible scholars.

As is often the nature with collections such as this it has been difficult to keep all the volumes in print, and at an affordable price for students and scholars alike.

T&T Clark is delighted to now be bringing this valuable series back into print in its entirety with a new cover design (watch this space), and to be conducting a pricing review of the collection. We will also be presenting the collection in electronic format, for sale to libraries and institutions.

Release is planned for March 2010, and further details will be announced both here and on our website.

‘An enterprising series of collections of important and pioneering studies… Those teaching feminist courses will find the books invaluable as a resource for students.’ C.S. Rodd, Expository Times.

SCE Conference in San Jose

We will be attending the Annual Conference of the Society of Christian Ethics on January 7th to 10th in San Jose, California. Please do drop us a note if you want to make an appointment and discuss any possible book projects.

We are looking forward to seeing you there!

The Roots we need to cultivate

This is a guest post by Rebecca Rozelle-Stone and Lucian Stone, the editors of our recent publication on Simone Weil: Relevance of the Radical.

The Roots We Need to Cultivate:
Reflections on The Relevance of the Radical: Simone Weil 100 Year Later

It is more than a little ironic to devote a book of essays to a person who would maintain that the truly great and profound insights and works of beauty we have received from the past are “essentially anonymous.” Simone Weil (1909-1943), the late French philosopher, mystic, and social activist, would no doubt eclipse her personhood on this occasion of her 100th year, were she still alive. It was not uncommon for her to write things like, “May I disappear in order that those things that I see may become perfect in their beauty from the very fact that they are no longer things that I see.”¹ However, she never shied from elaborating her thoughts on ethics, religion, politics, force, suffering, work, beauty, and a multitude of other critical issues, and although in our book we reflected on these themes while acknowledging their unity in her life and her writings, the thesis of the collection is the universality – and in that sense, the anonymity – of Weil’s insights.

Way down yonder in New Orleans: SBL

Just a quick note to say 'come and see us at SBL' we'll be a booth 300 and have some very exciting new books, electronic publications and new editions to show off.

If you'd like to speak to an editor then you'll need to hunt down either Katie Gallof (for JSOTS/LHBOTS) or me for everything else biblical studies related.

Hope to see you in New Orleans!

Préparer pour aller à Montréal!

No worries, I will switch over to English as my French is all too rusty...

We are already packing up to go to this year's AAR in Montréal and hope we will see as many of you there as possible!

As every year we will have a booth at Montreal too: You will find us in the exhibition hall at booth 507. Please do come and say hello!

All books on display are available at a discount and all orders to the US and Canada will ship for FREE!

There will also be a display of our new e-books!

Three of our editors will be available at the booth:

Thomas Kraft (Theology)
Kirsty Schaper (Religious Studies)
Haaris Naqvi (Philosophy of Religion)

Looking forward to seeing you at Montreal!

What can we learn from the Early Church I: Andrew Gregory

 

Constructing Modern Theological Thinking: What can we learn from the Early Church?

It is just over a century since H B Swete published a small book called Patristic Study (Longmans,1904), one of a number of volumes in a series entitled Handbooks for the Clergy. The aim of his little book, wrote Swete, was ‘to draw the attention of the younger clergy of the Church of England to the vast store of wisdom which has been bequeathed to them by the ancient Catholic Church.’

Reading the Fathers, Swete tells us, is not only stimulating but also of great practical value, for ‘the parish priest of the twentieth century will find in the greater writers of the Ancient Church much direct help for his daily work; sermons, catechises, pastoral intercourse, personal life will be enriched by converse with the pastors and teachers of other times.’ Indeed, he tells us, ‘There are few departments of theological research in which the Fathers can fail to render valuable help to those who know how to make yield up their treasure’, and he gives as examples biblical textual criticism, the history of the canon, the history of biblical interpretation, the progress of Christian thought and the study of liturgy.

‘Nor’, he continues, ‘is it only to students in the stricter sense that the Fathers can render service; they may be turned to practical account by the working parish priest. The preacher will find in their pages the grand models of ancient pulpit oratory; the pastor may look to them for guidance in problems which are common to all ages of the Church.’ Thus the benefits of patristic study to which Swete directs his readers are practical as well as academic, if such a distinction may be sustained: ‘If a knowledge of the Fathers may be of value to the clergy in forming an opinion on disputed points of ritual and Church order, it will help them even more surely on the side of pastoralia -- the practical conduct of the parish priest’s life and work. The majority of the Fathers were not only writers and preachers, but diligent and experienced guides of souls.’