Campion Hall celebrated the book launch on 4 April of A History of the Bible: The Book and its Faiths (Penguin, 2019), Professor John Barton’s extraordinary tour de force.
We welcomed over 50 guests, many professors from the Faculty of Theology and Religion as well as Stuart Proffitt, John’s editor from Penguin Books. In his welcome, Dr Nicholas Austin, SJ talked of Professor Barton wearing ‘his profound knowledge lightly’ and this book, which is the product of a lifetime of study, is eminently readable even in a secular and scientific society. Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch in his introduction, recalled being a student at Ripon College, Cuddesdon 30 years ago, who would attend lectures at Oxford University when John Barton was one of the stellar teaching staff; studying the Book of Amos with John had been sheer delight. Stuart Proffitt asked Professor MacCulloch to recommend an author for this book and he had no hesitation in suggesting John.
His masterpiece is already a best seller. Read reviews at The Guardian, The Evening Standard, and The Church Times
