{"id":66228,"date":"2018-10-11T23:26:01","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T05:26:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=66228"},"modified":"2018-10-11T23:26:01","modified_gmt":"2018-10-12T05:26:01","slug":"margaret-barker-at-byu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/10\/margaret-barker-at-byu.html","title":{"rendered":"Margaret Barker at BYU"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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\"The<\/a>
The very early Earth, as conceived by an artist \u2014 not obviously well suited at that point to the creation of intelligent life, or, for that matter, to any other kind of life, let alone to conservation, theology, and the building of temples \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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A last-minute and mostly too-late reminder, sent to me earlier today by my friend Jack Welch:<\/p>\n

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Margaret Barker,<\/a>\u00a0a Methodist scholar of Bible and Temple Studies, will present\u00a0\u201cCreation Theology, Temple, and the Environment\u201d<\/a>\u00a0at BYU. Dr. Barker\u00a0works with faith communities<\/a>\u00a0to raise awareness of pressing environmental issues such as the plight of the world\u2019s waters.<\/span><\/p>\n

George Handley, David Larsen, and Jacob Rennaker will be participating. Following the presentations, there will be time for questions and discussion, and the event will conclude at 4:15.\u00a0Find out more here.<\/a>\u00a0Dr. Barker and Dr. Handley will present at USU in the days prior to the event<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The event is free. It will be recorded and made available on\u00a0byustudies.byu.edu<\/a>\u00a0in coming weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n

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***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s a book note that I wrote more than ten years ago, but that might interest some of you still today:<\/p>\n

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William J. Hamblin. Warfare in the Ancient Near East to 1600 BC: Holy Warriors at the Dawn of History.<\/em> London and New York: Routledge, 2006. xxiv + 517 pp., with bibliography and index. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Hamblin, a professor of history at Brigham Young University and a frequent FARMS contributor (e.g., with Stephen D. Ricks, co-editor of the important 1990 FARMS volume Warfare in the Book of Mormon<\/em>), has produced a hefty tome that ranges from its opening chapter on \u201cThe Neolithic Age and the origin of warfare (to c. 3000)\u201d to an eighteenth chapter treating \u201cEarly Second Intermediate Period Egypt (1786-1667).\u201d\u00a0 In between, he discusses warfare and siegecraft in Mesopotamia under the Akkadians and Neo-Sumerians and through the Middle Bronze Age (which furnishes the volume\u2019s terminal date); covers Mari, Syria, Lebanon, Canaan, and Anatolia; and closes with several chapters on warfare in Egypt commencing from the Pre-Dynastic, Early Dynastic, and Old Kingdom periods.\u00a0 Among many other topics, the book treats questions of recruitment and training, logistics, weaponry, the role of \u201cmagic,\u201d naval conflict, fortifications, and combat narratives.\u00a0 Dr. Hamblin pays particular attention to the ideology of the \u201choly war\u201d in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, arguing that subsequent Near Eastern concepts of \u201choly war\u201d (including today\u2019s) should be understood against this older background.\u00a0 In a jacket endorsement, Professor Robert Drews of Vanderbilt University pronounces the book \u201ca goldmine of information\u2014both textual and archaeological.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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The book is still available for sale<\/a>, as well \u2014 of course \u2014 as in academic libraries:<\/p>\n

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