Barker on the Great High Priest at St. Vladimir

Margaret Barker was recently invited to give the Fr. Alexander Schmemann Memorial Lecture at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Seminary.  An audio and print copy of her presentation can be found online here.

Here is a question, and  her answer found only at the end of the audio presentation at59:00:30

Q.  Why [are] people of the Mormon faith interested in your work; maybe again you can explain their attraction to temple worship.

A. Well, you never know whose going read your books.  And many years ago now, I was contacted by a leading scholar of the Latter-day Saints and he came to see me when he was in England.  And he said when had read this particular book, The Great Angel, he couldn’t believe it hadn’t been written by one of their community.  And he was intrigued how somebody working outside their community, just using the conventional tools of scholarship could come up with something very, very similar–usually identical to their teachings.  And we explored this and I have developed a very happy relationship with many top Mormon scholars, really good biblical scholars, who know their temple stuff.  And what they come up with and what I’ve come up with is just about identical.  So I work with Mormons because, in terms of temple scholarship, they are the best available.  Full stop.