The T & T Clark Blog

Faith Leaders Recommend Books for Lent

On Saturday, the Times had a section on Lent books for 2010 with a good number of faith leaders recommending reading for lent.

We are very pleased to see that titles from Continuum and T&T Clark feature prominently on the list.

Archbishop Dr Rowan Williams recommends St John of the Cross. Some of his writings are available from Continuum here.

Timothy Radcliffe favours Herbert McCabes God, Christ and Us (here with a full preview!)

Canon Jane Hedges from Westminster is reading Lucy Winkett's lent book Our Sound is our Wound, which was commissioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury as Lent Book for 2010.

Another Lent Book from our list is Andrew Rumsey's Strangely Warmed, in the Times article recommended by Rosemary Lain-Priestley.

Bishop Geoffrey Rowell of the C of E's diocese in Europe endorses Margaret Barker's Creation: A Biblical Vision for the Environment

In the spirit of Anglican-Methodist unity the President of the Methodist Conference, Rev David Gamble, reads Rowan Williams' Dostoyevsky: Language, Faith and Fiction.

Last but not least our own Publishing Director, Robin Baird-Smith, unashamedly endorses one of our own books: Bishop Martin Warner's Between Heaven and Charing Cross.

 

Paul Dafydd Jones: The Humanity of Christ

Thanks to Travis who started a little series on Paul D. Jones' book The Humanity of Christ over on his blog  Der Evangelische Theologe. We feel flattered! But may I also steer you attention to the end of his post with an amusing juxtaposition of the portraits of both Barth and Jones. Very funny!

 

'Justice and Compassion in Biblical Law'

I am very pleased to announce that Richard H. Hiers’ new book ‘Justice and Compassion in Biblical Law’ is now available on both sides of Atlantic.

Richard Hiers provides a new consideration of the subject with an emphasis upon the underlying justice and compassion implicit within. This book draws on, and in turn relates to three areas of scholarship and concern: biblical studies, social ethics, and jurisprudence (legal theory). Modern legal categories often illuminate the nature of biblical law: for instance, by distinguishing between inheritance and bequests or wills (a distinction not found in traditional biblical commentaries), and by identifying the meaning or function of biblical laws by using such categories as “contract” and “tort” law, “due process,” “equal protection,” and “social welfare legislation.” Several discussions throughout the book compare or contrast biblical laws with modern Anglo-American law or social policies. Each chapter begins with two or three relevant quotations: one or two from biblical texts, and sometimes from one or two relevant latter-day sources, notably, Magna Carta, the United States Constitution, and writings by Ayn Rand, and Robert Bellah. Although modern law usually shows greater compassion, biblical law often combines concern for both justice and compassion in ways that sometime provide grounds for critiquing modern counterparts.

New LNTS Books

 

Three new LNTS titles have hit my desk today.

The first is an exciting monograph on Austin Farrer's reading of Mark's Gospel, considering it very much in terms of 'literary paradigm'. The book comes from Robert Titley, who is a Canon in the diocese of Southwark. The late MD Goulder would surely have approved of such continued in depth engagement with Farrer's biblical scholarship.

Next up is a continuation in Tom Hatina's much lauded 'mini-series' of books on Biblical Interpretation in the Early Christian Gospels - volume 3, on Luke.

Finally we have 'The Audience of the Gospels', edited by Edward Klink III, which looks at study of gospel origins and function since Richard Bauckham's The Gospels for All Christians. Bauckham himself is a contributor.

Lamentations ICC

Exciting news. We have just received the typescript of Robin Salter's finished commentary on Lamentations, which will be the next volume to be published in the International Critical Commentary series.

It is wonderful to have a new volume in the pipline, as it has been a few years since the last Old Testament volume published.

We hope to have the volume ready in time for SBL in Atlanta.

T&T Biblical Studies authors on TV!

I don't know if any of you have been watching Channel 4's series on the bible (I guess this will only apply to UK readers), well it's been fantastic to see two T&T Clark authors with books out this month gracing our television screens.

In the most recent episode - shown on Sunday and currently available on 4 on demand the perfectly formed Ann Widdecombe MP gives us the benefit of her opinions on the bible.

The honourable member was not happy to hear from Dr Francesca Stavrakopoulou of Exeter University, co-editor (with John Barton) of 'Religious Diversity in Ancient Israel and Judah' that Moses might not have existed exactly as the biblical account claims, and might not have written the Pentateuch.
 

Widdecombe much preferred Dom Henry Wansbrough, author of 'The Use and Abuse of the Bible' which is published in the UK at the end of this month for his pithy summary of the adaption of the Mosaic law according to the Sermon on the Mount.

Another coincidence is the fact that the series consultant is LNTS Series Editor Mark Goodacre.

And to top it all off part of the episode is filmed in Guildford - my home town. 

 

PS You can watch the episode on Channel 4 on demand, and maybe the earlier ones too.

New Preview-Feature on Continuum Website: Widgets

We have introduced a new preview feature on the Continuum website. The new "widgets" enable readers to read parts of new titles (up to 25pages or so) see the table of contents and the cover as printed in the book.

Just follow the links below to see how it works or visit www.continuumbooks.com .

We hope you like it!

Preview Reshaping Ecumenical Theology

Preview Political History of Early Christianity

Preview The Early Church

What can we learn from the Early Church III: Paul Collins

Here is part three of our mini series. This text comes from Paul M. Collins, a Priest in the Church of England and a Reader in Theology at the University of Chichester, UK.

Early Church texts and the construction of identity

The editing, collecting and publication of Early Church texts is something which has come to be recognised as having profound effects on Christian identity.

The first of two selections from the ‘Philokalia’ published in 1951 [translated from Russian] by Faber and Faber on the encouragement and recommendation of T.S. Eliot, provided the Anglophone world with its first encounter with a collection of Early Church and Medieval texts. These selections were taken from a Russian edition of the Philokalia by Theophan the Recluse, who translated the collection from Church Slavonic into Russian in 1877 adding some more texts to the original collection. Interest in these texts arose from a revival on Mount Athos in the mid eighteenth century in the practice of prayer of the heart (hesychasm) which is often associated with the Jesus Prayer. The publication of The Way of the Pilgrim (1884) in Russia popularised this form of prayer and also encouraged the reading of the Philokalia. So perhaps it is no surprise that when Russian Orthodox theologians fled to the West after the Bolshekiv revolution that the Philokalia became a primary source for (re-) constructing Orthodox identity. So what is the Philokalia?

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.