Margaret Barker (born 1944 ) is a British Methodist preacher and biblical scholar. She studied theology at the University of Cambridge, after which she has devoted her life to research in ancient Christianity. She has developed an approach to biblical studies known as Temple Theology. She was president of the Society for Old Testament Study in 1998, and in July 2008 she was awarded the Lambeth degree of Doctor of Divinity by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Temple Theology

Temple Theology is an approach to biblical studies developed by Margaret Barker in her books starting from The Great High Priest (2003) and Temple Theology (2004). This approach identifies some elements of the theology and worship of Solomon's Temple that endured beyond Josiah's reform and survived in both early Christian theology and liturgy and in gnosticism. According to this view Temple Theology has been influential in moulding the roots of Christianity as well as, or even more than, Hellenistic or synagogue culture. According to Barker, the main ideas of Temple Theology are the following: Margaret Barker works from all the available sources (the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, the Dead Sea scrolls, the New Testament, the Jewish and Christian Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, Gnostic texts, and other early writings and artwork). According to her, Sola Scriptura – the doctrine that the Bible is the supreme authority in all matters of doctrine and practice – has hindered rather than helped the understanding of Christianity.

Reception

Margaret Barker's work has been received positively within the Mormon tradition. However, it has been regarded as fanciful and unpersuasive to some New Testament scholars. Specifically, some scholars believe Barker engages in parallelomania. Barker's later work has been critiqued for primarily citing her own work, and failing to substantially engage with the broader scholarly literature covering the topics on which she writes. However the same critic also points to original elements of her work which deserve further study and appreciation. Writes Peter Schäfer of Princeton: "For a Judaism scholar [Schäfer] focused on religious history, [Barker's] books are particularly hard to digest. They contain numerous surprising as well as brilliant insights, but all in all create a new syncretistic religion that avoids any and all chronological, geographic, and literary differentiations." Notable supporters of Barker's work include Robert M. Price.

Publications