James Barr

"Julian Critchley's assessment has been confirmed time and again since the Bow Group was founded in 1951 with the aim, in the words of one of its founders, of 'acting as a stimulus to the Conservative Party and providing an effective counter to "intellectual" Socialism and the Fabian Society.' Geoffrey Howe, David Howell, John MacGregor, Leon Brittan, Norman Lamont, Michael Howard and Peter Lilley all reached Conservative cabinets by way of chairmanship of the Group, and the importance of this highly influential Conservative think tank - founded long before the term 'think tank' had entered common currency - continues to reverberate around the corridors of power." "James Barr's extensively researched and entertaining account of the Bow Group's first fifty years charts its history from the first meeting at the Bow and Bromley Conservative Club in February 1951 - when Geoffrey Howe, William Rees-Mogg and Norman St. John Stevas were among the first participants - through increasing significance as those early members reached positions of influence in national politics, to its current place in Tory thinking."--BOOK JACKET.

This book is descended from the Cadbury Lectures, delivered in the University of Birmingham as long ago as 1968. My early volume Old and New in Interpretation (1966) remains the basis of the vision now presented. The work in its present form is written as a sort of textbook, though the book has been expanded to contain much more material than one could cover in a single course of the normal kind. The work is a discussion of the whole idea of biblical theology, its possibilities and its prospects. It is neither a survey nor a history, though it includes some elements of both of these. If there is any one theme that runs through this work, it is the contested character of biblical theology, as it has been in this century. - Preface.

Fundamentalism is a world-shaking force. It has given joy, peace of mind, and a sense of purpose to millions. It has become a formidable political and social movement. Yet fundamentalism has apparently disappointed many of its former followers, who are now fearful and confused. This book explains exactly what has gone wrong with fundamentalism and why. It contains no mockery, no disrespect, and no malice. It is a book written with love, for those who genuinely want to understandon.

It is a main concern of both scholarship and theology that the Bible should be soundly and adequately interpreted. In recent years I have come to believe that one of the greatest dangers to such sound and adequate interpretation comes from the prevailing use of procedures which, while claiming to rest upon a knowledge of the Israelite and the Greek ways of thinking, constantly mishandle and distort the linguistic evidence of the Hebrew and Greek languages as they are used in the Bible. The fact that these procedures have never to my knowledge been collected, analyzed and criticized in detail was the chief stimulus to my undertaking of this task myself. - Preface.

From Good Books in the Woods: In these stories, Barr explores aspects of the theme of sexual inversion.

From Goodreads: This is primarily the story of two young men, Philip Froelich and Tim Danelaw, who are irresistibly drawn to each other. Both are in every obvious respect what is generally termed masculine. There is no suggestion of the effeminate – nothing that could evoke the characterization of gay. Their backgrounds and personalities are thoroughly American, and they live and work in a completely normal man's social and professional world. Other men respect and admire their courage and ability and even their physical prowess. Women are very much attracted to both of them. Tim, the older the two, has already recognized and resolved the problem of his sexual deviation. Phillip has not. A product of rural American mores and attitudes, he has a fierce contempt for "queers" and at the same time a deep and secret dread that the germ of homosexuality maybe buried somewhere within himself. One or two incidences in his life have shaken him profoundly and have made him determined ruthlessly to crush any tendencies in himself as well as to avoid any close relations with other men. He is engaged to be married as soon as he is discharged from the Navy, and he intends to rear a big family, to take over the operations of his family's bank and other interests, and to become a responsible and civic-minded leader in his community. As the story opens, he has almost reached the refuge and security he has carefully planned. But then he meets Danelaw. From that moment the struggle begins – a tense and shattering emotional upheaval composed of aversion, self-contempt, admiration and – finally – love. There are other well-drawn characters in this drama – Phillip's exceptional family; his fiancée and her mother; Tim's fascinating wife; Lt. Bruner, the blackmailer; Stuff, the hard-boiled sailor who worshipped Philip. QUATREFOIL is a deeply moral novel. Two men of integrity and intellect are confronted with the knowledge that they are deviants from the normal pattern of our society – that most people in that society would abhor and persecute them if they openly avowed their difference. Both men avidly desire to live within the social conventions and to attain the ends that motivate all men – a home, a family, respecting in their community, an opportunity to do honest and satisfying work, to realize their ambitions.