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Interview with Professor Andrew Skinner on “Temple Worship”

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Temple Worship

Temple Worship

This morning I heard an excellent 50-minute interview on KSL News Radio on the program “People of Faith with Carole Mikita.” Today, Mikita interviewed Professor Andrew Skinner, Excecutive Director of The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, on his recent publication of the book entitled Temple Worship: 20 Truths That Will Bless Your Life available at Deseret Book.

The interview spanned a wide range of subjects relating to Skinner’s new book, including what temples are, their purpose, ancient temples throughout the world, the restoration of temples in the latter days, temples in Church history, and many other points of interest from his new book. While I have not yet read the book, this interview has peaked my interest substantially. There is a great introduction to the book at this link.

I highly recommend this interview. You can listen to it here on the website (you’ll have to scroll to about the 8 minute mark to get to the beginning of the program):

http://pandora.bonnint.net/audio/2008_02_24_people_of_faith.mp3

Visit the Temples, with Google Street View

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Google Maps
Google announced today the addition of “Street View” to the Salt Lake City area of Google Maps. What does that mean? You can now virtually visit any street across the entire Wasatch Front, from Pleasant View to Santaquin. You can drag the panoramic photos around with your mouse and look in 360 degrees, click the arrows on the street to move up and down the street and walk around the block, and click the zoom buttons to zoom in and out. You can even use the arrow keys on your keyboard to virtually drive down the streets. It’s fantastic.

I thought it would be fun to visit all eight temples in the valley which have Street View enabled. Now anyone in the world can feel like they’ve seen and walked around these temples in person. See all the interactive temple views below. (Works best in Firefox): [Read more…]

The Genesis of the Round Dance

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Dance of the Muses

Dance of the Muses

Round dances, through all ages of time and all locations of the world, display striking similarities in structure and theme. This is strong evidence that they share a common origin. These dances are usually quite religious in nature and I propose that round dances, like other widespread yet similar ritual motifs found scattered across the world, had their beginnings in one of the first sacred rites of this world given to and practiced by our first parents, namely the ancient prayer circle.

The paper on this subject has been split up into the following parts:

Part 1 – Introduction

Part 2 – Round dances from the Neolithic time period, Native American, Mesopotamian, and Egyptian cultures.

Part 3 – Round dances from the Greek, Hebrew, and Christian cultures.

Part 4 – Round dances from the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and present-day traditions. Common pattern throughout all practices.

Part 5 – Round dances show connections with religions, and with ritual creation dramas throughout history, including the early Christian prayer circle.

Part 6 – Round dances show connections with worship since the beginning of time, indicating a common source. These practices are familiar to the Latter-day Saints. Conclusion.