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The chapters in this book give an account of how the agenda for theology and religious studies was set and reset throughout the twentieth century – by rapid and at times cataclysmic changes (wars, followed by social and academic upheavals in the 1960s), by new movements of thought, by a bounty of archaeological discoveries, and by unprecedented archival research. Further new trends of study and fresh approaches (existentialist, Marxian, postmodern) have in more recent years generated new quests and horizons for reflection and research. Theological enquiry in Great Britain was transformed in the late nineteenth century through the gradual acceptance of the methods and results of historical criticism. New agendas emerged in the various sub-disciplines of theology and religious studies. Some of the issues raised by biblical criticism, for example Christology and the ‘quest of the historical Jesus’, were to remain topics of controversy throughout the twentieth century. In other important and far-reaching ways, however, the agendas that seemed clear in the early part of the century were abandoned, or transformed and replaced, not only as a result of new discoveries and movements of thought, but also by the unfolding events of a century that brought the appalling carnage and horror of two world wars. Their aftermath brought a shattering of inherited world views, including religious world views, and disillusion with the optimistic trust in inevitable progress that had seemed assured in many quarters and found expression in widely influential ‘liberal’ theological thought of the time. The centenary of the British Academy in 2002 has provided a most welcome opportunity for reconsidering the contribution of British scholarship to theological and religious studies in the last hundred years.

Since 1980, epigraphic discoveries and researches have thrown new light on the Levant during the Achaemenid period (533-332 BCE). As an epigrapher who published many new Phoenician, Aramaic and Hebrew inscriptions André Lemaire shows how these inscriptions illuminate the history and daily life of the Persian period Phoenicians, Israelites and Idumeans. Thanks to them, it is now possible to know more precisely the history of the four Phoenician kingdoms (Aradus, Byblos, Sidon and Tyre) and of the Cisjordan provinces (Samaria, Judaea and Idumaea) as well as the way of life of Judean groups in the Diaspora (Babylonia, Egypt, Cyprus); they also provide new light on several aspects of the Biblical literary tradition. Profusely illustrated, the book shows how important these various inscriptions are for Biblical Studies and historical researches on the Levant during a period still too often qualified as ‘obscure’ but more and more illuminated now by contemporary documents

Pelagius is the first known British author, important because of his persuasive advocacy of two ideas: that human nature was inclined to goodness, and that man had free will. After a campaign to vilify him, he was excommunicated in AD 418 for allegedly inventing a new heresy, and his name was made synonymous with arrogance. This book shows that Pelagius defended the contemporary ascetic account of Christianity and that, far from being the leader of a separatist group, he was one of many propagandists for the ascetic movement which swept through Christianity at this time and generated medieval monasticism. Textual analysis proves that Pelagius did not teach the ideas attributed to him or propose anything new. It is impossible to differentiate between Pelagius’ writings and other ascetic literature, and there was no separate group of ‘Pelagians’. This book also examines how and why the myth was created, setting this process in its historical context and in the context of scholarship on the function of heresy in religion and sociological analysis of the creation of deviance. Finally, manuscript evidence supports the argument that ‘Pelagianism’ was a deliberately created myth. Travelling under false attributions, Pelagius’ writings were staples of monastic book collections because they contained the same ideas as other texts promoting the ascetic version of Christianity. In the fourteenth century, when Christians once more sought a confident anthropology, it was Pelagius’ works to which they turned. This book presents a paradigm shift in our understanding of the history of Christianity in the West.

The first Schweich Lectures were given by Professor S. R. Driver of Oxford University in 1908 and the British Academy celebrated the centenary of the lectures with a single lecture in 2008. This book is an amplified version of that lecture, with each of its three chapters developing a theme relevant to the occasion. The lectures, on aspects of the study of antiquity in its relationship to the Bible, were established by a gift from Constance Schweich (later Mrs Goetze) in memory of her late father, Leopold Schweich. The first chapter of this book brings together biographical information (including some previously unpublished documents) about the Schweichs, who were originally a German Jewish family with close connections to the distinguished chemist and industrialist Ludwig Mond. The donation was the first major benefaction received by the British Academy, which had been founded in 1901 but initially had no government funding. The second chapter uses archival and published sources to reconstruct the circumstances and the history of the lectureship. An Appendix lists the names of all the lecturers, their subjects, and details of the publication of their lectures. The final chapter, ‘Archaeology and the Bible — A Broken Link?’, examines broader questions about ‘biblical archaeology’, which arose in the later twentieth century in the light of developments in archaeological theory and biblical scholarship, and considers whether there is still a future for collaboration between the two disciplines. The book provides a glimpse into Jewish philanthropy in England in the Edwardian era.

In recent years, the study of the history of Ancient Israel has become very heated. On the one hand there are those who continue to use the Bible as a primary source, modified and illustrated by the findings of archaeology, and on the other there are some who believe that primacy should be given to archaeology and that the Biblical account is then seen to be for the most part completely unreliable in historical terms. This book makes a contribution to this debate by inquiring into the appropriate methods for combining different sorts of evidence – from archaeology, epigraphy, iconography, and the Bible. It also seeks to learn from related historical disciplines such as classical antiquity and early Islamic history, where similar problems are faced. Chapters focus on the ninth century BCE (the period of the Omri dynasty) as a test case, but the proposals are of far wider application. The book brings together in mutually respectful dialogue the representatives of positions that are otherwise in danger of talking across one another.