The Temple and the Christmas Story

I am rather at a disadvantage in reading this book because it comes at the end of Margaret Barker's exploration of her Temple Theology. As she comments on her website on her work:

Margaret Barker has developed an approach to Biblical Studies now known as Temple Theology. Margaret Barker read theology at the University of Cambridge, England, 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.

Temple Theology as she summarizes it emphasizes the early Church:

Temple theology traces the roots of Christian theology back into the first Temple, destroyed by the cultural revolution in the time of King Josiah at the end of the seventh century BCE. Refugees from the purges settled in Egypt and Arabia. From widely scattered surviving fragments, it is possible to reconstruct the world view of the first Christians, and to restore to their original setting such key concepts as the Messiah, divine Sonship, covenant, atonement, resurrection, incarnation, the Second Coming and the Kingdom of God.

So in this book, Christmas: The Original Story, Barker is applying that Temple Theology to our understanding of the Nativity stories in the Gospels of St. Luke and St. Matthew, and the Protoevangelicum of James. One point she makes on her website, summarizing the tenets of Temple Theology: "Sola Scriptura has hindered rather than helped the understanding of Christianity" and she calls on her fellow Protestants to understand the Tradition of the Church, how the early Christians, the Apostolic Fathers and the later Fathers of the Church experienced the Divine Revelation in mystery and sign.

I said I was at some disadvantage having not read the books in which Barker outlines the Temple Theology, but as I read Christmas: The Original Story, I realized that being a Catholic, attending Mass and praying with the Church liturgically in other ways, I could easily see how the liturgical sacrifices and ordinances of the Temple echo in our worship. Even in the externals: a consecrated, separated priesthood, incense, vestments, ritual, mystery, etc, I could appreciate some of what she unfolds in this book from experience, especially from having attended Eastern Orthodox and participated in Eastern Rite Catholic Divine Liturgies.

In Chapter 1, "The Setting" she covers "The World of the Temple," "Telling the Stories", and "The Politics". Part of her argument in this chapter is that the efforts to synthesize the early Christian view of Jesus, the Son of God Incarnate in the Virgin's womb with Greek philosophy created some of the confusion that led to the long debates about the Person of Jesus Christ from the Arians to the Nestorians, etc, etc.

In Chapter 2, "Other Voices", Barker examines the Gospels of St. John and St. Mark, and John's Revelation, exploring themes of "Adam", "The Lady", and "The Hidden Descent". She points out that early Christians, converts from Judaism, saw Jesus as the restorer of the First Temple, as the High Priest on the Day of Atonement and she explores Old Testament images of the Lady and the Mother of Jesus through the story of the Woman Clothed with the Sun. She references St. Ignatius of Antioch and St. Irenaeus of Lyon in exploring how "the Lord descended invisible to created things".

Chapter 3 is dedicated to exploring the tenets of Temple Theology in the Gospel of St. Luke:

• The first annunciation:the birth of John [could also be: the conception of John]
• The second annunciation: the birth of Jesus [could also be: the conception of Jesus]
• The meeting of Elizabeth and Mary [the Visitation]
• The birth of John
• The birth of Jesus
• The annunciation to the shepherds
• The LORD in his temple

Barker's explication of the roles of Simeon and Anna in what I'm used to calling the Presentation of the Lord explores how they reveal aspects of Temple life at the time of Jesus, as they looked for the one who would truly restore the Temple and redeem Israel.

In Chapter 4 Barker explores the Nativity Story in the Gospel of St. Matthew:

• The genealogy
• The Virgin birth
• The star
• The magi
• The flight into Egypt

In the section on the genealogy she examines both Luke's and Matthew's family trees for Jesus. She notes that St. Matthew emphasized the Virgin birth of Jesus because of contemporary claims that Jesus's mother was a harlot. Barker describes the development of different theories about who the magi were, where they came from, and why they brought the gifts they gave. In general she notes that St. Matthew's infancy narrative emphasizes how the birth of Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah, including that he would "come out of Egypt". She cites the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew as the source of some legends of the Holy Family's sojourn in Egypt.

Chapter 5 explores The Infancy Gospel of St. James, the great source of many traditions in the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church: the Meeting of Anna and Joachim at the Gate; the Presentation of Mary in the Temple; the Marriage of Mary and Joseph; the Eastern Orthodox Icon of the Cave, etc. She argues that the Infancy Gospel or Protoevangelicum of St. James demonstrates Mary's exalted role in our redemption from the beginning as the Theokotos, the Mother of God, not simply the Mother of Jesus. In general, Barker notes that this gospel provides Christians with many traditions and is more influential than understood or acknowledged: she calls for more study of the text, of which she provides a translation.

In Chapter 6 Barker discusses how the Koran or Qur'an describes the birth of Jesus and dissents from the teaching that He is the Incarnate Son of God. As Barker states, this is too scandalous to accept, even though the Qur'an accepts that Jesus's birth was miraculous and honors Mary as the Mother of Jesus.

So Barker ends her book with the mystery of the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, Incarnate in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born in a manger, a baby in swaddling clothes--the Savior and Redeemer. She says that there is an ongoing debate in the Christian Church about how to express how this mystery occurred--how to put it into English words (for English-speaking Christians). 

To me that means that this is mystery, beyond human language and complete understanding, as high as God is high above us and yet as surely true as the fact that God loves us as much as He loves us.

Fascinating.

Books, Books, Books: Part One

My family and friends know me very well indeed. I have a stack of wonderful books to read in the new year. With two exceptions--the first two books--these are the books I've received as gifts for my birthday and Christmas and the approximate order in which I plan to read them. I've received so many books that I've divvied them up into two posts, today and tomorrow.

But first I want to finish Margaret Barker's Christmas: The Original Story which I purchased from Eighth Day Books earlier this month:

The story of Christmas is loved by all Christians, and its cultural influence is felt far and wide, not only in the art and literature of the Church but also in the Qur’an. Much of the original story, however, is not found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and so some of the detail in Christian art and literature is not always understood.

Margaret Barker uses her knowledge of temple tradition and Jewish culture in the time of Jesus to set the story in its original cultural and literary context. By examining the widely used Infancy Gospel of James, and by uncovering layers of allusion in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, she reveals what the Christmas story originally meant. She then goes on to show how this understanding can be found in later texts such as the Arabic Infancy Gospel and legends known in mediaeval Europe.

This is first book I've read by Barker, a Methodist Preacher:

Margaret Barker has developed an approach to Biblical Studies now known as Temple Theology. Margaret Barker read theology at the University of Cambridge, England, 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.

BTW, Eighth Day Books is holding their annual after Christmas sale: 35% off used books! If you're in Wichita, this is place to be:

We invite you to visit us after Christmas to pick up a few used book bargains. Every "pre-owned" title on the shelf is 35% off through New Year's Eve. Don't miss the opportunity to browse this curated inventory of used books-our best selection ever!

We are open regular hours right after Christmas: 10-8 on Thursday & Friday, 10-6 on Saturday. The sale continues Monday and Tuesday until New Year's Eve. We look forward to wishing you a joyous New Year full of inspired-and inspiring-reading.

After finishing Christmas: The Original Story by the end of Christmas-tide I want to dive into Gareth Russell's latest great work: The Ship of Dreams: The Sinking of the Titanic and the End of the Edwardian Era, sent to me by the publisher through the author's generosity!

I'll post a review once I've come up for air!! The story of the Titanic has fascinated me for years; I've watched all the movies and read other classic accounts and am looking forward to Russell's Belfast-based view. The book has been very well reviewed!

Then I'll wade through George Weigel's latest, The Irony of Modern Catholic History: How the Church Rediscovered Itself and Challenged the Modern World to Reform from Basic Books:

A powerful new interpretation of Catholicism’s dramatic encounter with modernity, by one of America’s leading intellectuals

Throughout much of the nineteenth century, both secular and Catholic leaders assumed that the Church and the modern world were locked in a battle to the death. The triumph of modernity would not only finish the Church as a consequential player in world history; it would also lead to the death of religious conviction. But today, the Catholic Church is far more vital and consequential than it was 150 years ago. Ironically, in confronting modernity, the Catholic Church rediscovered its evangelical essence. In the process, Catholicism developed intellectual tools capable of rescuing the imperiled modern project.

A richly rendered, deeply learned, and powerfully argued account of two centuries of profound change in the church and the world, The Irony of Modern Catholic History reveals how Catholicism offers twenty-first century essential truths for our survival and flourishing.

I received another book that will be fun to dip into throughout the year: Saints are Not Sad: Short Biographies of Joyful Saints, assembled by Frank J. Sheed and published anew by Ignatius Press:

"The only tragedy is not to be a saint", wrote the French novelist Léon Bloy. And St. Francis de Sales said that "A sad saint would be a sorry saint." But what is a saint? One way to answer is to analyze sanctity, theologically and psychologically. Another way, which is the path Frank Sheed chose in creating this volume, is to show you a saint-or rather, since no two saints are alike-to show you a number of saints. In this book, you are shown forty saints.

The saints Sheed chose for this collection are from various time periods: six before A.D. 500, seventeen from then to the Reformation, and seventeen from the Reformation to the middle of the twentieth century. Many are well known, like St. Anthony, Francis, Augustine, Patrick and Bernadette, while others are lesser known, for example, Columcille and Malachy.

The same can be said for the various authors of these short biographies. Among them are the famous like Hilaire Belloc, Alban Goodier and G.K. Chesterton, as well as priests and laymen whose names may no longer be familiar but whose writing still brings to life men and women whose closeness to God gave them purpose, strength, and yes, joy.

That's all for today, folks! More tomorrow when I find a new metaphor!