I went to the Mormon Studies Conference today at UVU, and heard some great presentations. I liveblogged much of it. Unfortunately, my hard drive crashed part-way through the day, and I could not finish. Below are the notes that I was able to take of several of the presentations. Feel free to read through them (click the replay button). Since I am out a computer now, I will not be liveblogging the Mormon Studies Conference tomorrow. However, I will still be liveblogging General Conference, so be sure to tune in to TempleStudy.com this weekend for live commentary and Twitter discussion!
This upcoming Thursday and Friday (April 2-3, 2009) there is a going to be an annual event — the Mormon Studies Conference at Utah Valley University, in Orem, Utah. I just became aware of this a few days ago, and it looks like it’s going to be very good. The theme of the conference is “Mormonism in the Public Mind: Perceptions of an Emerging World Faith.” The keynote address will be given by Michael Paulson, Pulitzer Prize winning religion reporter for the Boston Globe, on the topic “Far From Zion: Meeting Mormonism on the Religion Beat.” Other participants will include [Read more…]
The late Krister Stendahl (1921-2008), who was a Swedish theologian, New Testament scholar, and a Professor and Dean of Divinity at Harvard University, once addressed the press about one of the Mormon temples that was being built nearby, and spoke about three important rules for religious understanding. These rules have since been recognized for their tremendous insight and application in interfaith dialogue and learning. They are:
When you are trying to understand another religion, you should ask the adherents of that religion and not its enemies.
Don’t compare your “best” to their “worst.”
Leave room for “holy envy.” In other words, recognize those aspects of other religious traditions that you admire and wish could be reflected in your own.
I think there is great truth embedded in these principles, and we have the opportunity to exercise them every day. In fact, we use them often here on TempleStudy.com to compare the similarities and differences of Mormon temples with other religious traditions and sacred worship practices.
Below is a short new video which succinctly explains what Mormon temples mean to the Latter-day Saints, from the Latter-day Saint perspective. Hopefully those that are inquisitive about the Church will be able to learn, from us, what the temple means when investigating and evaluating LDS temple worship.
A more comprehensive video of 44 minutes, of which this is only a snippet, is also available to watch, entitled “Between Heaven and Earth,” which includes commentary and interviews from a number of scholars and theologians, both LDS and from other faiths.
Orson Scott Card wrote a great article today on Mormon Times, highlighting the tremendous influence that Hugh Nibley and C.S. Lewis have had on his “Christian education” over the years, but particularly when he was younger.
I couldn’t agree more with his feelings about the impact that these two scholars have had. I’ve particularly been influenced, even fundamentally changed, by the writings of Hugh Nibley, and I’m just beginning to get into Lewis. Like I’ve said in the past, in a way I’ve felt personally mentored by Nibley through reading his work, a sentiment shared by Orson Scott Card: [Read more…]
Recently I’ve been pondering the place of the temple in the Christmas story. Last week my wife and I attended the Conference Center performance of Savior of the World which was very well done and depicted the birth and resurrection of Christ. One of the first scenes involved the temple at Jerusalem. As I have read through the Christmas story in the book of Luke I found that the temple holds a central theme in the account. Here are some of my thoughts: [Read more…]
This upcoming Thursday and Friday (April 2-3, 2009) there is a going to be an annual event — the 