According to Margaret Barker Temple Mysticism is a hypothesis based on a new understanding of the design and ritual of the Jerusalem Temple. Her theory proposes that much of our understanding of the origin of Christianity is underpinned by a more ancient comprehension of what the Temple stood for. She argues that much of Temple Mysticism was taught orally, that many texts were changed or suppressed, and that there are underlying meanings in much of what has been seen as Temple tradition. The author has made an extensive study of Temple ritual and draws out many new observations in her revolutionary approach. Not a book for the faint-hearted, but one provoking many questions in the mind of the reader and providing some interesting new perspectives on ancient Jewish religion. As Dr Rowan Williams says of it, ‘A welcome study, enlarging the mind and imagination.’