Margaret Barker on YouTube

This is exactly the kind of thing which is wonderful at the SBL--a lunch conversation with a scholar, in this case Margaret Barker (although not at the SBL). Margaret Barker is an independent biblical scholar. In July 2008 Margaret Barker was awarded a DD by the 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.’

Here's a link to other interviews with Margaret Barker thanks to Bill Hamblin. Also on this link are announcements of planned meetings of the Temple Studies Group the first of which is Melchizedek in Scripture, Liturgy and Tradition, to be held on Saturday 8 November 2008, 10am-4pm, in Oxford. Speakers so far are Crispin Fletcher Louis, Robert Hayward, Laurence Hemming, Margaret Barker.

Here I am at the annual meeting of the SBL in Boston looking forward to stimulating papers and conversations and new publications!

Today's NY Times has an article on the seminary's geothermal drilling project.

So far, General Theological has drilled seven wells to the end of time — or 150 to 180 stories deep, at least. The seminary has plans for 15 more. When the project is complete, it will be the largest system of geothermal pumps in the Northeast, said Carl Orio, the chairman of Water Energy Distributors, a consultant and contractor that worked on the project.

The seminary has about 200 students, most of whom are studying to become Episcopal priests. About five years ago, it commissioned a study on its physical plant, which was expensive to heat and impossible to cool.

“We wanted to come into the 21st century,” Ms. Burnley said. “We skipped the 20th century altogether. Thomas Edison himself wired this campus. We’ve got Edison Electric plaques all over the place.”

"Decoding the Heavens" -- the first computer?

From the introduction to Jo Marchant's "Decoding the Heavens":

In 1900 a group of sponge divers blown off course in the Mediterranean discovered an Ancient Greek shipwreck dating from around 70 BC.

Lying unnoticed for months amongst their hard-won haul was what appeared to be a formless lump of corroded rock. It turned out to be the most stunning scientific artefact we have from antiquity. For more than a century this 'Antikythera mechanism' puzzled academics. It was ancient clockwork, unmatched in complexity for 1000 years - but who could have made it, and what was it for?

Now, more than 2000 years after the device was lost at sea, scientists have pieced together its intricate workings and revealed its secrets. The Antikythera Mechanism is an ancient Greek artefact comprising more than 30 precisely cut bronze gear wheels, dials and pointers held in a wooden case. It was probably one among many luxury gadgets for the educated Greek and Roman elite — the only example of its kind to survive. "The Antikythera Mechanism," Marchant concludes, "was originally meant as a celebration of the heavens."

Installation of Dr Serena Jones as UTS President

Today, Dr Serena Jones will be installed as the new President of Union Theological Seminary.

Aftermath of my retreat

is reflecting on silence:

All our contemporary thinking about silence sees it as an absence or a lack of speech or sound - a totally negative condition. But Sara Maitland increasingly identified an interior dimension to silence, a sort of stillness of heart and mind which is not a void but a rich space.

Silence resists attempts to explain it. Indeed, ineffability is one of the key tests of mystical experience. I might even say that the "best" hermits are those who have least to say about it. The only thing Tenzin Palmo, a British Buddhist nun who spent three years high in the Himalayas in radical silence, seems ever to have said - at least publicly - about her personal experience is, "Well, it wasn't boring."

Nova: The Bible's Buried Secrets--Nov 18

Nova: The Bible's Buried Secrets will be shown on Nov 18th at 8pm on PBS here in NYC. The website has sections on Archaeology, on Exodus (with Carol Meyers), on writers (with Michael Coogan) and on origins of the written Bible (with William Schniedewind).

Fred Edwards, R.I.P.

The Guardian has an obituary for Fred Edwards:

Most people would have been content to boast, as did Fred Edwards, who has died of cancer at the age of 77, that they were director of the "largest social work department in Europe". But even the vast Strathclyde region could not contain his personality, energy, talents and ambitions. These traits, and the importance of the role his position afforded him, made him the voice of Scottish social work - a voice which, uncommonly, was heard south of the border.

Fred believed that the command to love one's neighbour made him "responsible, as far as I can be, for the state of the world". It led him and his second wife, Mary, to establish a water purification and female literacy project in Cambodia in 2002.

When, in 2005, he developed myeloma, he joked that, as a driven man, he was attracted to the idea of eternal rest. Fred never lost his values and vision in the daily grind of bureaucracy or the wielding of power.

In later years, he referred to his deep Christian faith as "public orthodoxy, private heresy". He said that it had grown more minimalist but more profound. He was strongly attached to the ecumenical Iona community. He could be serious but was never pompous. When he said: "I had an aspiration to righteousness, but my appetites kept getting in the way," he spoke the truth, but did so with his characteristic bellowing laugh.

On retirement in 1993 Fred proudly announced that he would be following "a portfolio career". This did not involve the lucrative consultancies and appointments to quangos that so many of his fellows collect. He became a full-time voluntary worker, a new career that encompassed the environment, religion and social justice. He gained a qualification in ecology and a national newspaper recently named him one of the UK's most influential environmentalists.

Same-sex marriage in Connecticut

Today, same-sex marriages became real in Connecticut! Doesn't the picture say it all?

Befriending the Bible

How the Scriptures Came to Be—and Why it Matters

Why are there four Gospels instead of one? Why are some books included in the most ancient manuscripts but excluded from the Bible as we know it today? Why were the books of the Bible written down at all? Understanding and appreciating the diversity and complexity of our sacred texts can bring a new depth to our engagement with the Bible, freeing it to become a doorway to the Divine. In this twenty-four hour retreat, we’ll discover the fascinating theological and historical origins of the collection of writings we call “The Bible,” and practice living in its inherent tension between diversity and conformity. Our time together will include presentation, discussion, group meditation, sharing, worship, and spiritual practices fostering a new connection with this ancient wisdom.

Deirdre Good, Lisa Green
Sat., Nov. 15, 3 p.m.-Sun., Nov. 16, 3 p.m.
$155 ($140 Members)
St. Marguerite’s Retreat House,
Community of St. John Baptist, Mendham

Cosponsored by Interweave and
Christ Church, Short Hills

Music in Exile at the Museum of Jewish Heritage

Thanks to a friend, I have been at two concerts in the Music in Exile series at the Museum for Jewish Heritage. Monday was a wonderful lecture, A Czech Gershwin in New York: with Dr. Michael Beckerman of NYU on the exiled Jesek complete with musical excerpts on mp2 files, playing the piano and a CD of the funeral. The music was Robert Kahn: Violin Sonata *

Matyas Seiber: Divertimento for clarinet and string quartet

Franz Reizenstein: Piano Quintet in D Major, Op. 33*

(* US Premiere)

Last night was Mieczyslaw Weinberg: Sonata for clarinet and piano, Op. 28

Songs for Bass (North American Premiere)

Quintet for piano and strings, Op. 18

Performed by Artists of the Royal Conservatory in Canada and Robert Pomakov, bass

There are tickets for tonight and Thursday still available. To hear music from exiles in some cases never heard before is an extraordinary experience.