There has rarely ever been a day like that which began the night of the 15th of May and ran through to the afternoon of the 16th of May here at Durham University. It was C.K. Barrett day, and a whole series of honorific scholarly presentations, as well as personal reflections were given on CKB, my doctor father. The picture above comes courtesy of old friend Professor Bill Telford, now retired, who taught at both Newcastle and Durham. I lectured on the importance of rhetoric for the study of the NT. Morna Hooker, retired Lady Margaret Prof. of Divinity at Cambridge offered a fascinating study of ‘The Sanctuary of his Body’ considering various major texts where there is interplay between the terms soma and various terms for ‘temple’. One issue among others, is why the sometime equation of body and temple or even ekklesia?
Judy Lieu, current Lady Margaret Professor at Cambridge helped us with the topic of ‘Pauline Controversies in the Post Pauline Era’. Offering a more CKB focused lecture, John Ashton of Oxford assessed CKB among commentators on John. Robert Morgan, also emeritus at Oxford, offered an assessment of Barrett’s work and NT Theology itself. Penelope Barrett Hyslop brought lots of pictures and diploma’s and memorabilia to look at (apparently Kingsley was quite the cricket player early on) and this dovetailed quite nicely with the Courts from Canterbury who offered a slide show of CKB and memories of Durham. One might call all of this a living Festschrift of sorts, a toasting of a great scholar and a great Christian, not to mention a devout Methodist who on his death bed was busy singing Methodist hymns and preaching, much like the way John Wesley himself passed. For me, it was a very special 24 hours indeed, and full kudos must go to John Barclay for arranging all of this so fully and so well. It was an enormous blessing, and well attended. I can’t think of another scholar in the Western world who has had such a tribute done to him in this way. A good time was had by all.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In