"A short review cannot hope to do justice to the richness and complexity of this book, which is full of intriguing suggestions." - Church Times, 2008
Mention - New Testament Abstracts, Vol. 52 No. 3, 2008
"Baker moves seamlessly between Older Testament, Apocryphal, New Testament, and Patristic writings...There are many insights in this book that help us appreciate the theology of worship in the ancient church. We need not be drawn into the enthusiasm that suggests that temple theology answers all questions about ancient Christian worship." -Frank C. Senn, Worship, November 2008
"For the last decade, Margaret Barker has been publishing intriguing books about the biblical foundations of Christian worship. Her latest, Temple Themes in Christian Worship...is her most comprehensive to date. Her thesis is that early Christian worship, as evidenced by the New Testament and patristic writers, derives from the worship of the temple, rather than, say, from Hellenistic mystery religions or the Jewish synagogue...Barker gets a lot into her book, and a lot is right. Alongside Danielou's The Bible and the Liturgy and Jeff Meyer's The Lord's Service, it's a valuable contribution to our understanding of the Old Testament roots of Christian worship." -Peter J. Leithart, Credenda, Summer 2008
'[This book] serves to synthesize [Barker's] previous work as well as add fresh material and suggestions ... She manages to integrate texts/translations from greatly differing contexts to show their possible interconnectedness in the realm of Temple worship, and consequently can present with creative persuasion the links between early Christian worship and the worlds of the first and second Temple.' Theological Book Review, Volume 20, No 2, 2008
"This fascinating book moves beyond conventional wisdom and opens up new vistas." International Review of Biblical Studies, vol. 54:2007/08
"...an impressive array of evidence." USUS Antiquor, Vol 1 January 2010
The book will mainly be of interest to scholars but the more general reader can benefit from a detailed and intriguing account of both temple and early church worship.
- The Good Bookstall,