Dr. Margaret Barker will be giving the 2012 Fr. Alexander Schmemann Lecture at St. Vladimir’s Theological Seminary in Yonkers on Sunday, January 29th at 4:00 p.m. The lecture will be titled “Our Great High Priest: The Church as the New Temple.” Barker, according to the seminary’s announcement,
has received wide recognition for her fascinating scholarship, based on the premise that early Christian theology matured so quickly because it was a return to a far older faith. Dr. Barker believes that those who preserved the ancient tradition rejected the second temple and longed for the restoration of the original true temple and the faith of Abraham, and of Melchizedek, the first priest-king. In her writings, she refutes the scholarly assumption that crucial Christian concepts such as the Trinity, the earth as a reflection of heaven, and the cosmic structure of the atonement, are informed by Greek culture. Rather, she argues, they are drawn from the eclipsed faith of the first temple.
The public is invited. The seminary is a short walk from the Crestwood Station on the Metro North line. Commuter train and driving directions can be found here .
