Temple Theology

Tutor: Margaret Barker

Temple Theology is a fast-growing new way of biblical study, rediscovering the roots of Christianity in the world of the Jerusalem temple. We shall explore how temple symbolism, belief and practice shaped Christian faith and culture. Temple Theology is changing how we understand Christian origins and our relationship to Judaism.

Margaret Barker has developed an approach to Biblical Studies now known as Temple Theology. Margaret Barker read theology at Cambridge and went on to pursue her research  independently. She was elected President of the Society for Old Testament Study in 1998, and edited the Society’s second Monograph Series, published by Ashgate. She has so far written 17 books, which form a sequence, later volumes building on her earlier conclusions. Since 1997, she has been part of the symposium Religion, Science and the Environment, convened by His All
Holiness Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch.

This work has led her to develop the practical implications of Temple Theology as the basis for a Christian environment theology. In July 2008 Margaret Barker was awarded a Lambeth Degree  of Doctor of Divinity by Rowan Williams, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, ‘in recognition of her work on the Jerusalem Temple and the origins of Christian Liturgy, which has made a significantly new contribution to our understanding of the New Testament and opened up important fields for research’.

Margaret Barker is a mother and grandmother, a retired Methodist preacher and was involved for over 30 years with the work of a women’s refuge.