1. Readily available Temple-related Products:  All the products that I’ve been able to find that have to do with LDS temples or ancient temples from Amazon.com I have individually selected and gathered together, sorted, and categorized.  They include temple products from many categories including books (44 items), home & garden (191 items), office (18 items), toys & games (29 items), music (22 items), apparel (8 items), jewelry (32 items), DVD (6 items), and miscellaneous (26 items).  If you are looking for a temple-themed book, tie tack, stationery, photograph, music, game, or other such item, the TempleStudy.com store is a great place to start looking because I’ve already narrowed down the search for you.  The store itself currently includes a total of 376 temple-related products, but there are also many more products available from the “Listmania!” or “Similar Items” links on the right-hand side of the store which change and rotate automatically as you browse the store.
2. No Anti-Mormon Material: You can browse the entire TempleStudy.com store without a worry of running across any critical propaganda, which can often become a distraction from the positive, faith-promoting material that you’re looking for, and many times it is hard to detect from the cover or description alone.  I have hand-picked every item here, and have filtered out all of that diversion.  Have peace of mind when you are looking for just the right temple product.  Note, however, that I can’t choose what appears in the Listmania! or Similar Items lists.
3. Supporting TempleStudy.com:  A portion of each sale from this store will go to help support TempleStudy.com. 

The most valuable part of the store is the books.  There are so many excellent books available that have been written about the temple, from General Authorities and the best of LDS scholars, but sometimes members just don’t know where to start looking.  I have personally selected what I believe are the best books that have been written on the subject and related topics.  This section contains such classics as The Temple in Time and Eternity, Temples of the Ancient World, Temple and Cosmos, The Gate of Heaven, The Holy Temple, and The House of the Lord.  Other studies also include some of Methodist scholar Margaret Barker’s excellent books like Temple Themes in Christian Worship, Temple Theology, and The Great High Priest: The Temple Roots of Christian Liturgy.  Any of these books are excellent in learning more about the temple and ancient temple theology and history.  Take a look through these great books!

Of course, you could just buy these items directly from Amazon.com, but by buying them here a portion of the sale will go to help support TempleStudy.com.  If you have a moment, please take a look through the store.  It will also be available from a permalink on the navigation menu at the top of the website.  You can also see a sampling of the products offered in the store below.

If you have any ideas or recommendations for products that could be added to the store, please let me know.

New TempleStudy.com Store!

Sacred Stone

I just watched an excellent documentary on BYU Television entitled “Sacred Stone: Temple on the Mississippi.” It was all about the building of the Nauvoo temple, and included video of the rebuilding of the current temple from just a few years ago. Here is the description from BYU broadcasting:

In September 1846, the last of more than 12,000 Nauvoo, IL residents were forcibly driven from their homes to begin their journey to the Great Basin, blazing what is now known as the Mormon Trail. Their presence in Nauvoo accounted for one of the largest and fastest-growing cities in Illinois and the construction of its stately temple. In 1848 the same unruly forces that drove them out also sacked and burned the temple. Today, more than 150 years later, the Nauvoo Temple rises on the very footprint of its original. Please join narrator Hal Holbrook for this remarkable story – a historic chapter from 19th-Century America.

Not only did this documentary outline the history of the Nauvoo temple, but the history of temple building among the Latter-day Saints in general. Many interviews were conducted with LDS scholars and other scholars from prominent universities all across the country. Some of the comments from non-LDS scholars were very interesting as it relates to the purpose of temples on earth. I will see if I can pull some of those quotes for a future post.

You can watch this documentary online at www.byu.tv. Just follow the instructions to install the Movie Media Player, and then scroll back to 12:00pm on today’s date, February 16, 2008. You can watch the entire program online. If you have BYU-TV you can also watch the program be rebroadcast on February 18th, 2008, at 8:30am MST. Or if those options don’t work out, you can also purchase the DVD of the program from Deseret Book.

Sacred Stone: Temple on the Mississippi – DVD

DVD about President Hinckley’s Temple Building