The T & T Clark Blog

SOTS, Lincoln, Henry VIII and Anselm of Canterbury

[The Imp I didn't see]

Anna and I have just returned from a wonderful SOTS (linked with EABS and OTW) in Lincoln. Despite the heavy rain it was a good conference for proposals and book sales, and the papers that I attended all held things to interest. Axel Knauf's paper on the 'End of History' (?), which opened the SOTS programme being particularly good. Although, alas, I did not understand the German quotations he made. Bob Becking spoke on 'David from Evidence to Archaeology', which was very interesting, but I could have done with a bit more on ideology.

It was good to catch up with authors and to meet with new possible authors. Some good proposals might come from this conference - more on that anon.

There was just time on the last day to brave the rain and rush up to the cathedral. Extremely impressive vaulting, and nice to see the base of the shrine which held the head of little St Hugh of Lincoln. However the building as a whole felt strangely soul-less for some reason. Perhaps it was the rain? Unfortunately I failed to spot the famous ‘imp’ as we had to rush back for our train. Next time.

Upon returning to London I took advantage of the late opening of the Henry VIII exhibition at the British Library. It is quite astonishing, and I strongly urge anyone who has an interest in the Reformation to see it. Most wonderful to see was Henry’s Defensor Fidei medal, just a few yards away from the Act of Supremacy. However seeing the exhibition one does get the very definite feeling that Henry was not merely intent on getting a pretty new wife and a male heir in his desire to divorce Catherine of Aragon (although of course that had something to do with it!), but convinced that he was being punished for Leviticus 18.16 and thus needed to be free from divine condemnation.

The following day I had another brief moment of holiday in Oxford, doing some reading myself, and had a cup of tea with Sister Benedicta Ward, whose new book on Anselm of Canterbury is published by SPCK. Sr Benedicta is of course the author of our OCT book on the Venerable Bede.

Margaret Barker on Temple Music

The new Temple Studies Group met for their second symposium on Saturday, most appropriately at London's Temple Church. The subject of the day was "Temple Music". Here is the paper Margaret Barker gave at the symposium. Enjoy!  

 

 

Margaret Barker on Temple Music

 

Music was an important element in temple worship, but it was also controversial.  There was something about temple music that was not acceptable to those who changed the ways of the temple in the seventh century BCE, the time of King Josiah.  Piecing together the other elements that were purged or discouraged, a picture emerges of the role of music in the temple which is consistent over many centuries, a role that passed into the Church. . 

There are two accounts of the temple in the Old Testament, both compiled after the time of Josiah, and both drawing on ancient source material.  One account, in the books of Samuel and Kings, was written by a group who based themselves on the characteristic teachings of Deuteronomy, a puritanical group who thought that both temple and monarchy were a departure from their people’s desert origins; and the other account, in the books of Chronicles-Ezra and Nehemiah, was written by a priestly group who favoured both monarchy and temple. 

When the Deuteronomists described David bringing the ark to Jerusalem (2 Sam.6), they mentioned musicians in the procession - but no names were given - and said that the ark was set in its tent, David offered sacrifices and blessed the people, and there was a feast.  The priestly account, however, (1 Chron.15-16) describes in detail a procession of named Levites singing, accompanied by named musicians playing cymbals, harps, and lyres, and by named priests blowing trumpets.  Did they possess, centuries after the event, records of temple musicians? 

 

Robert D Hughes is awarded Poullart Libermann Award

We congratulate Robert D .Hughes III one being awarded the inaugural Poullart Libermann Award in Pneumatology for his book Beloved Dust: Tides of the Spirit in the Christian Life.

The Poullart Libermann Award in Pneumatology honors the individual who has made the most significant scholarly contribution to the area of pneumatology in the preceding five year period. The award will be presented at the Holy Spirit Lecture and Colloquium where Hughes has also been asked to present a lecture on a theme from the book.

Beloved Dust takes a realistic and contemporary view of human being as entirely physical (dust) and then shows it immersed in three great tides of the Holy Spirit, the traditional threefold rhythm of conversion, transfiguration, and glory.

Friday Free For All.

Well, it's Friday, so we'll just let you know what's up before the weekend starts and you have to get busy on that paper due Monday.

First of all, if you look at the right hand column, you'll see we've put up a link to join us on Twitter. Typepad has recently made it quite easy to make that available. Just click on it and join up. (@heleningram, thanks for the reminder!)

We've also made a link over there to join any and all of our mailing lists. We recently sent one out on our Theology titles. More should be coming soon.

Next weekend, Burke Gerstenschlager (that's me), will be attending SWCRS in Dallas/Fort Worth. If you want to meet to talk book ideas, let me know. I'll also be doing campus visits to TCU and SMU on Friday and am available Thursday afternoon, too. So if you're a scholar in the area and want to meet, let's get in touch. I'm just sticking to the Metroplex this time. Sorry, Baylor and everyone in Austin! We'll just have to do the two-step next time I'm in the Lone Star State.

Last but definitely not least we have some MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR news to tell you on Monday so be sure to check us out on Monday for that. Something NOT to be missed. SRSLY.

Hey, look! Everything in this post is free! Not bad for a Friday. (Good luck with that same business model, Twitter...)

The Bible and Critical Theory Seminar Calls For Papers

Anyone who knows me is well aware that I truly enjoy (much to the confusion and lament of my close friends and family) those two great tastes that taste great together: the Bible and critical theory! Thus, it is with great pleasure that I pass on the news that The Bible and Critical Theory Seminar has offered a call for papers for BCTS XIV:

Roland Boer, at Stalin's Moustache, writes

Papers typically deal with all areas of biblical studies and critical theory, which we define broadly to cover areas such as feminism, postcolonialism, psychoanalysis, Marxism, narratology, empire studies, new historicism, eco-criticism, queer theory, poststructuralism and so on.

When: Friday-Saturday, 10-11 July 2009 (please note the slight change in date from earlier announcements – the pub doesn’t open on Sundays).

Where: a great old pub called The Grand Hotel, corner of Church and Bolton Streets, Newcastle. You can check it out at http://www.thegrandhotelnewcastle.com.au/. It’s 5 minutes from the beach, 10 minutes from Newcastle Railway station and in the old part of town. We’ll do our usual thing of listen to papers, discuss (more room for that this year), slip away for a drink, etc.

I do miss Australia. And I'll miss this gathering, too.

Check out Roland's blog for the meeting's complete details

You can send paper proposals to him at roland.t.boer(at)gmail.com.

50th Meeting of Society of Christian Ethics this weekend

Happy New Year, all! We're looking forward to a great year in 2009 and we have a number of new releases to tell you about in the very near future.

This weekend, we'll be at the 50th annual meeting of the Society of Christian Ethics in Chicago, Il. Be sure to come by our booth and say hello. If you have a proposal or would like to discuss a book idea, please feel free to schedule a meeting. The sessions all look really interesting and it will be wonderful to see all our authors who will be in attendance, too.

Everyone have a safe trip out there and back. I guess you can't have January in Chicago without snow. At least we can all suffer together with Chicago-style pizza. Hey, it doesn't seem so cold anymore!

Call for Papers: Genesis and Christian Theology

We are pleased to announce a conference on behalf of the University of St Andrews (Scotland):

14-18 July 2009 St Mary’s College,
University of St Andrews

The University of St Andrews is pleased to announce its third conference on Scripture and Christian Theology. Since the first conference on the Gospel of John in 2003, the St Andrews conferences have been recognized as one of the most important occasions when biblical scholars and systematic theologians are brought together in conversation about a biblical text. The conferences aim to cut through the megaphone diplomacy or the sheer incomprehension that so often marks attempts to communicate across our disciplines.

We invite you then to join us and some of the best theological and biblical minds in careful and often lively interaction about one of the most theologically generative of biblical books: the book of Genesis. We are now calling for papers that integrate close readings of Genesis with Christian theology. While we are particularly interested in explorations of the dynamic relationship between Genesis and Christian doctrine, we also welcome proposals that combine careful reading of the text of Genesis with theological attention to art, creativity, ecology, ethics, the history of interpretation, or Jewish and Christian dialogue. The call for paper proposals closes on 15 March 2009. Please visit our website for further details or to submit a proposal:

Visit the website for further information or to submit a proposal.

T&T Clark goes to Chicago for AAR

Chicago, the Windy City! It's that time again: conference time! And we'll most certainly be at AAR in full force this weekend. Come visit us at Booth 115 to check out our books and to meet our editors! We're easy to find. From the entrance of the exhibit hall, we're in the furthermost left-hand aisle towards the back.

We've brought a ton of stuff with plenty of new releases and all of our books will be at discounts up to 55%!

Thomas Kraft, our Theology Editor, and Kirsty Schaper, our Religious Studies Editor will be available to meet with anyone who wants to discuss book ideas.

If you're already one of our authors, be sure to drop by! We always love to catch up with you.

Don't forget that we'll also be at the Evangelical Theological Society in Providence and SBL in Boston right after that. Be sure to let us know if you want to meet with our biblical studies editors.

Come See T&T Clark at Summer Conferences!

You'd probably like to know that during the next few weeks, our editors will be out and about at a few conferences in the US and UK.

At the moment, we're at the Society for Old Testament Study Summer Meeting being held at Wadham College, University of Oxford.

From July 29 - August 2, We'll also be attending the the 63rd General Meeting of Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas in Lund, Sweden.

From August 2-5, we'll be attending the seventy-first international meeting of the Catholic Biblical Association of America at Fordham University in New York City.

After that, we'll be traveling to the University of Lisbon in Portugal for the European Association of Biblical Studies meeting to be held August 3rd to the 6th.

Hope to see you there! Be sure to let us know if you read our blog, too!

Margaret Barker receives Doctorate from Lambeth Palace

Margaret Barker, scholar and author of several books on the Jerusalem Temple and the Old Testament, has been awarded the degree of a Doctor of Divinity by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The ceremony took place at Lambeth Palace yesterday afternoon.

Margaret received the doctorate "in recognition of her work on the Jerusalem Temple and the origins of Christian liturgy which has made a significant new contribution to our understanding of the New Testament and opened up important fields for research."

The Archbishop of Canterbury's right to grant degrees is derived from Peter's Pence Act of 1533 which empowered the Archbishop to grant dispensations previously granted by the Pope. The practice began during the time when attendance at Oxford and Cambridge, the only universities at that time in England, was frequently disrupted by the difficulty of travel or outbreaks of the plague. The Archbishop was empowered to grant exemption from the residential requirements necessary for a degree.

Margaret Barkers latest book, Temple Themes in Christian Worship was published in January.

Congratulations!