Monthly Archives: February 2007

Temple Theology: An Introduction (Margaret Barker)

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Fabulous book, fascinating and stimulating (and very short), which I’ve just completed for the Learning Church sequence. Outlines Barker’s understanding of first Temple liturgy and ritual which she argues shapes Christian understandings from the start. What was most interesting was the argument that the Deuteronomists were the puritans of their time, and Christianity was in many ways the reassertion of a suppressed form of Israelite worship.

There will be more on this theme – I’ve got ‘The Great High Priest’ on the shelf up for reading soon. If you’re interested, Barker has a very good website here.

Red Eye

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This was fine, Wes Craven going mainstream, but the best thing about it – and this isn’t meant to be a sly criticism – was the fact that it was so comparatively short (about 80mins). It meant a very economical storyline, that didn’t get padded out with (too much) nonsense. It was good not to have every little thing explained.

TBTM20070209

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So over the side I slowly went down
A hundred below, the sea water brown
Well after an hour, I got low on air
When I surfaced again, his boat wasn’t there

My marker buoy had come untied
And drifted away, his boat at it’s side
He looked at his watch, three miles to the south
And turned back again, his heart in his mouth…

Was there ever a reel, a rod or a line
So strong and true? So straight or fine?
That tied around him, through time and space
he came out of the darkness, right to that place.

Now we don’t talk much, about that day
Got two kids of my own now, and one on the way
And if they’re to grow, and if they’re to thrive
One day they’ll go, one day they’ll dive.

And when they come up for light and air
I hope someone’s close, I hope someone’s there.

(Extracts from a Show of Hands song that blew me away the other night. Stunningly good. It’s on their latest album)

TBTM20070208

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Is it just McLaren or has someone put a hex onto the England manager’s job? Doubtless Hoddle would say it is karma for what they did it to him – he at least knew how to coach, even if he couldn’t manage for toffee…

Show of Hands

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My friend PB took me off to see Show of Hands perform at the Half Moon in Putney last night, which was a thoroughly excellent evening’s entertainment. I hadn’t heard anything by them before, but this is going to be an anthem for me; at least for a while:

And we learn to be ashamed before we walk
Of the way we look and the way we talk;
Without our stories or our songs
How will we know where we’ve come from?
I’ve lost St George in the Union Jack
It’s my flag too and I want it back

Seed, bud, flower, fruit
Never gonna grow without their roots
Branch, stem, shoots – we need roots

Haul away boys let them go
Out in the wind and the rain and snow
We’ve lost more than we’ll ever know
Round the rocky shores of England…

PS the support band were Megson – see here for a taste – thought they were pretty good too, even if we only heard their last two songs!