The T & T Clark Blog

Judging a book by its cover!

I know, you should not (normally) judge a book by its cover. However, from time to time we publish a book with a cover that is quite exceptional (I find).

This one is hot from the press: Oliver Crisp's new book God Incarnate. As many of you will know, Oliver has many talents - apart from being a brilliant thinker and theologian he is also a painter. For this new book of "explorations in Christology" we asked him to provide a painting for the cover (not something we would ask many authors to do...). Oliver came up with this remarkable and powerful painting "Jesus of Nazareth".

It now has a special place on my desk. Can't stop gazing at it.

Online Review: Wesley - A Guide for the Perplexed

There is a nice review of Jason Vickers' Wesley: A Guide for the Perplexed in this edition of Themelios by Dave Hill:

"Vickers’ argument is both illuminating and persuasive. His decision to engage with Wesley’s ecclesiology and public theology provides a helpful corrective to pietistic trends within evangelicalism. Those looking for a hero of private, individualistic Christianity in Wesley should look again."

You can read the full review here. 

Joseph Ratzinger - Mapping a Theological Journey

This is a guest post by Gerard Mannion from the Catholic University in Leuven. Gerard is one of the editors of our forthcoming title The Ratzinger Reader due to be published in January 2010.

When Joseph Ratzinger was formally announced as Pope Benedict XVI from the balcony above St Peter’s Square on April 19th 2005, completing his long journey from being a pastor-theologian to the Chair of Peter, unlike either of his two immediate predecessors (indeed, in a global sense, any of his predecessors), the world already knew a great deal about him. For the first time in history, here was a pontiff whose books were being read across the globe, whose ideas were widely known, who even had his own online ‘fan club’. So, too were there many books and articles, both popular and scholarly about him. And all this prior to his elevation to Peter’s chair.

Of course, the attention afforded him since his elevation to the Pontificate has multiplied enormously, and the number of books about him is legion. So there are many volumes about Joseph Ratzinger the theologian in print already, including other collections of his writings. Exhaustive bibliographies have been produced and many are available freely on the World Wide Web. A complete edition of his entire published corpus is also presently in production. So why another book about him?

En route to SOTS via Oxford

 

I am currently sitting in a very empty St Benet's Hall in Oxford, the small permanent private hall of Oxford University from which I took my degree.

The reason I am in St Benet's is because a monk friend of mine is over from St Louis Abbey, in Missouri, and he is staying at St Benet's for a few days. The students are all gone, the staff have all gone, it's just me, Fr Bede, with the furniture slightly re-ordered since I was last here (no I'm not talking about the chapel). As Fr Bede has gone to honour a prior supper engagement at Lincoln College (beautiful first quad, great bar), and I have nowhere to go until the friend I am staying with returns from London I am skulking in the St Benet's library (something I did rarely as an undergraduate) admiring the sheer number of T&T Clark books on the shevles. ICCs, LHBOTS, LNTS, lots of Karl Barth, more importantly lots of Cardinal von Balthasar.

In recent years the fellows of St Benet's have found their way onto the T&T Clark list. Firstly, in Jennifer Cooper's new monograph on Schillebeeckx, praised by Philip Kennedy (who wrote the volume on Schillebeeckx for our old OCT series several hundred years ago) as 'genuinely fascinating to read and a mine of information', secondly in a forthcoming book by Fr Bernard Green Christianity in Rome in the First Three Centuries which is in production now and looks set to fill a real gap in the market, it is beautifully written too. Finally, in a book which I signed up relatively recently by Dom Henry Wansbrough (who had published with us before in years gone by) - former Master of St Benet's - The Use and Abuse of the Bible a trade book which takes the reader through the different ways in which people have responded to the bible across the centuries. Of course, Fr Henry has also contributed to a very exciting new book on the infancy narratives for us New Perspectives on the Nativity. This book examines the infancy narratives from a variety of different angles, and is all the more valuable because since Raymond Brown there just hasn't been that much on them. It's great to be publishing this in PB from the outset.

And of course, Basil Hume was an undergraduate a St Benet's, and our recent book on him edited by William Charles features wonderful contributions from Abbot Patrick Barry, who until recently has been resident at St Louis.

But I arrived in Oxford with only one book which I wanted to discuss with and lend to Fr Bede, which I finished reading this morning, Eamonn Duffy's new book on the reign of Mary Tudor Fires of Faith (published by Yale - don't say we only write about our own books!). Of course I found that Fr Bede already had it. Hours later (on the way to buy cake in the Covered Market) we walked past the spot where Cranmer was burned as a heretic. The jury is still out for me on Cranmer - genius of the reformation with a real and unique sacramental theology as Gordon Jeanes argues in Signs of God's Promise or opportunistic and inconsistent Zwinglian. Perhaps I should let Thomas examine that one!

New Titles in the LSTS Series!

I would like to draw your attention to two new titles, two real treats, which have been published very recently.

The first one is titled Aramaic and Egyptian Legal Traditions at Elephantine. An Egyptological Approach, by Alejandro F. Botta. The author examines the legal documents of Elephantine by comparing these to the later Aramaic legal tradition, as part of a self-contained system, as well as from the point of view of the Assyriological legal tradition. Alejandro F. Botta proposes a new approach to discussion of these documents from an Egyptological perspective. Hence, in seeking the Egyptian parallels and antecedents to the Aramaic formulary, Botta hopes to balance the current scholarly perspective, based mostly upon Aramaic and Assyriological comparative studies.

The second new volume is Exile and Restoration Revisited. Essays on the Babylonian and Persian Periods in Memory of Peter R. Ackroyd, edited by Gary N. Knoppers, Lester L. Grabbe and Deirdre Fulton. This volume of essays, contributed by leading scholars, focuses on Ackroyd’s work regarding the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods, and the emphasis here is placed upon the study of Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles. Hence, Joseph Blenkinsopp seeks to find the ‘Sons of Aaron’ before the 5th century, in an essay that picks up the works of R.H. Kennett. Tamara Cohn Eskenazi presents a discussion that draws some aspects of a twenty-first-century perspective on the Persian period; and Bob Becking examines the epigraphic evidence concerning the mixed marriage crisis in Ezra-Nehemiah. Lester L. Grabbe contributes two essays to this volume; one discusses the settlement of Yehud in Early Persian period, whereas his second paper poses a question whether Jerusalem was a Persian fortress. There are also excellent essays from other distinguished contributors such as John Bergsma, Eric Myers and Jill Middlemass.

Both volumes are available to the customers in the UK and those in the US will be able to purchase them at the end of August.

Professor Graham Stanton

I have learned today of the death of Professor Graham Stanton, who was Emeritus Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge, and a former fellow of Fitzwilliam College.

As most of you will know Graham was, until very recently, the New Testament Editor of the International Critical Commentary. A statistic just illuminated by Graham Davies in an email to the ICC contributors points out that Stanton oversaw the publication of twelve volumes in the series, which is quite an astonishing achievement in a series which makes such demands of its general editors in their role ensuring the academic vigour of each volume that goes to press.

Most recently Graham worked on the new volume on John 1-4 by the late John McHugh. It was a project requiring some extremely careful and lengthy work bringing McHugh's typescript and notes together into a form which could be put forward for publication, and a task which few could have completed so effectively, or with such good humour. I know I speak for T&T Clark editors past and present in commending Professor Stanton's wonderful work for the ICC series, and the great legacy - on our own publishing list and beyond - that he leaves to his field. He shall be greatly missed indeed.

Martin Hengel

It was with great sadness that we learned of the recent death of Martin Hengel. I have been meaning to put a blog post up in commemoration of his rich scholarly life for the last few weeks.

At T&T Clark we were privileged enough to publish some of his books (such as 'Four Gospels and the One Gospel of Jesus Christ' and 'Septuagint as Christian Scripture').

I only once personally encountered Professor Hengel, in discussion about a FS for William Horbury, for which Hengel generously provided an endorsement. It was very shortly after starting work for T&T Clark and I remember feeling rather starstruck at having just spoken to Martin Hengel. His enthusiasm for the book we were discussing, and the immediacy of his response to it strikes me as an excellent point for comparison with his own scholarship which continues to impress scholars and students alike with its deftness of touch and sparkling clarity.

Bella Roma - SBL report

I have recently returned from a magnificent trip to Rome for the International SBL conference. Now, being the merry Papist that I am (Messrs T&T Clark look away now!), I had been looking forward to this trip for quite some time and it did not disappoint. The conference was an interesting event, with a good number of people in attendance - including people not often seen at ISBL such as our LNTS series editor Mark Goodacre. It was good to talk with Mark not only about books, and the series, but also about the fantastic new look NT Gateway. The trip as a whole fired off lots of references in my mind to much of our publishing across the theology, biblical studies, and general religion lists. I'm going to attempt to share this with you in this blog post.

First off, Sister Wendy, whose book Encounters With God was published just recently. I have always found icons fascinating for their purity of purpose, and reading Sister Wendy’s book provided a wonderful and readable insight into the ancient icons of the Virgin Mary – five of which are in Rome. I made a mini-pilgrimage to one; the Madonna of S. Francesca Romana (pictured) which is quite stunning in its grace and simplicity. It took a while to find, and I think it was only due to the lucky coincidence that one of the monks of the Olivetan Benedictine community which runs S. Francesca happened to be pottering about when I visited that I was able to persuade him to take me into the monastery chapel just outside the church to see the icon. Very beautiful. Sister Wendy was featured on Midweek on Radio 4 with Libby Purves when the book came out and you can still hear the interview here.

Then of course, in Rome, Empire was all around us. Obelisks from Egypt brought to Rome and later on  given new Christian significance with crucifixes. Columns bearing testimony to the great battles of emperors with statues of St Paul on the top (Column of Marcus Aurelius pictured). This all led me to think of John and Empire, Warren Carter’s fairly recent book which was one of our bestsellers at the conference. However the conference, to me, had a distinctly more Pauline feel – and Kathy Ehrensperger’s new paperback Paul and the Dynamics of Power (now available in paperback) was also a top seller.

On one night I had dinner with Patricia Terrell, author of a wonderful book which is about to come out called Paul’s Parallels which presents Pauline material in a tables format together with echoes from the Old Testament, New Testament and other sources. It is a truly remarkable achievement and I have not doubt that it will become a standard reference work for many years to come. Dinner was had in a restaurant called Hostaria Costanza which has an underground dining room underneath what would have been the tiers of the Theatre of Pompey.

It was also good to catch up with Francesca Stavrakopoulou, co-editor with John Barton of the forthcoming Religious Diversity in Ancient Israel and Judah which is sure to find its way on to a great many reading lists. It was equally wonderful to properly meet Jenny Read-Heimerdinger and Josep Rius-Camps for the first time, whose final commentary volume (of four) on The Message of Acts in Codex Bezae has just been published.

 

Being in Rome thoughts often turned to matters liturgical [when Fernet Branca wasn’t being imbibed] and following the conference I spent two solid days of holiday vamping around as many churches as possible. Highlights include the Portuguese Church (impressively camp), the Holy Bambino of Aracoeli (a bit frightening - see picture), S. Maria in Trastevere (extremely impressive), and a slightly run-down – though very beautiful church – S. Trinita Pellegrini which is run by the FSSP and is Rome’s only ‘old rite’ parish. It was wonderful to attend Mass in the Extraordinary form in Rome. This of course led me to think of the Layman’s Missal, and the wonderful Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described.

Altogether a multifaceted and productive trip with much to enjoy, and much to stimulate the mind.