andrew skinner

Fireside Discussion Part III

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Welcome!  This is our third episode of the fireside discussions on the temple, facilitated by Goolge+ Hangouts on Air.  We’re glad you could join us.  Tonight’s discussion is about the first chapter in Andrew Skinner’s book Temple Worship.  You can watch the recording below. Or view the machine transcription here. You can also download an MP3 audio version here.

In this discussion we talk about the temple as being the “ultimate” of our worship, what it means to “serve” in the temple, where temples or temple worship can take place on the earth, the first endowments given in the Nauvoo Temple attic, temple “work” vs. temple “worship,” the fact that the Nauvoo temple was only in use for 2 months (8 weeks) before it was destroyed which makes us reflect on the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in ancient times, what it means to have a “fullness of the Holy Ghost” which we can attain to in the temple, and the profound importance of the temple in the lives of Latter-day Saints and in our worship in the Church.

Panelists include Bryce Haymond, Gary Anderson, Gerald Smith, and William Hamblin.

Fireside Discussion Part III on Wednesday Evening

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We are planning our third fireside discussion at TempleStudy.com using Google Hangouts on Air, live online, for tomorrow night, Wednesday, August 22nd, at 7:30pm (get reminded by Google+ here).  Our discussion last week was great; we discussed the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Essenes, Qumran, the Temple Scroll, Jacob at Bethel and the symbolism of Jacob’s Ladder, and some thoughts from Elder Carlos E. Asay.  We should have a great chat this week too, with Professor William J. Hamblin leading the discussion.

In these discussions we talk about the history, principles, and reasons for the LDS temple, and temple worship antecedents in antiquity. Springboarding the discussion will be Andrew Skinner’s book, Temple Worship (chapter 1), which is also available as an ebook for Kindle.  If you would like to be a contributor, or “panelist,” in our discussion, and you have a webcam (or have an iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or Android), please let me know.  Otherwise you can simply watch the discussion as it takes place here at TempleStudy.com, on the Google+ event page, or the recording later which will be here at TempleStudy.com or on YouTube.

The Next Temple Fireside Discussion

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I have received several comments from people who said they enjoyed the temple fireside discussion we had this past Sunday. If you were not able to watch the discussion, it is available for viewing as a recording from that post.

Our next discussion was tentatively planned for Sunday tomorrow. We have pushed that back to this coming Thursday evening, August 16th, at 7:30pm. This will facilitate some of the panelists in participating with us.

As some of you know we were only able to make it through about three paragraphs of the introduction of Andrew Skinner’s book Temple Worship. I hope to move a bit faster than that through the text, or it will take an eternity to get through the text (which might be fitting, given the subject matter). Our first discussion also ran a little long at 1 hour 38 minutes. We had some technical difficulties that we believe we’ve ironed out. I hope to keep the discussions to around 1 hour, to be considerate of our panelists’ time, and to help more people find the time to watch live or the recording later.

Please let me know if you have any questions. We’ll see you on Thursday.

Google Hangout Temple Discussions Update

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After talking with a few people, I have decided that the Temple Prep manual that the Church has published is probably not a good choice to serve as a springboard for our Google Hangout temple discussions, for a number of reasons.  One of those reasons is that we do not want to appear to be supplanting the Temple Prep course, as it is taught under the guidance of a bishop.  There is no replacement for that course, offered by the Church’s local units, and it should be taken with care by every individual preparing to go to the temple for the first time.

So I’ve turned to considering other texts as guides for discussion.  Again, I don’t want the text to be the focus, but serve as a springboard for discussion.  To achieve this end, I think the book should be relatively short, concise, but broadly consider many aspects of the temple, both modern and ancient.  It should also come from a trusted author.

One book I read recently that seems to fit these qualifications well is Temple Worship: 20 Truths That Will Bless Your Life by Andrew C. Skinner.  It is relatively short at only a couple hundred pages, it is divided between 20 different concise chapter-topics that cover a wide spectrum of temple studies, and it’s a relatively easy read because it was written for a wide audience, and in a clear and forthright manner.  Dr. Andrew Skinner is a trusted religion scholar from BYU.  I also enjoyed the book.

Have you read this book?  What were your impressions?  Is there another text that you think might be better as a guide for our discussions?  Please share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

The Seal of Melchizedek – Part 5

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The seal of Melchizedek as seen on the entrance doors of the Salt Lake Temple

The seal of Melchizedek as seen on the entrance doors of the Salt Lake Temple. (Click for larger view)

(Continued from Part 4)

It’s been a long time coming, since September 2008 to be exact, and I’d like to finally complete this series of posts on the seal of Melchizedek.  It is probably one of the most trafficked series of posts on this website.  It’s drawn a lot of attention, and may have even been part of what compelled a BYU scholar, Alonzo L. Gaskill, to publish an article about it in The Religious Educator at BYU in 2010, which article I’d like to talk about.

But first, there are a few other artifacts related to the symbol that I’d like to share.  As I pointed out in Part 2, this seal is most prominently found as displayed in the mosaics and iconography in the basilicas of Ravenna, Italy.  Indeed, this is very likely where Hugh Nibley saw this symbol originally, as perhaps did Michael Lyon, and where he may have coined the name the “seal of Melchizedek.”  The symbol is shown on the altar cloths in these mosaics, shown next to Melchizedek, Abel, and Abraham, in making sacrificial offerings to God.  The altar cloth also shows gammadia in the corners, right-angle marks like the Greek letter gamma, which is also very interesting, and worthy of a study in and of itself.

To begin, I want to note again that to date I have not found any evidence for this symbol being called the “seal of Melchizedek” by any other scholar, historian, or historical figure in recorded history before Hugh Nibley and Michael Lyon.  That doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, but it is likely a conception that began with the Latter-day Saints, making a logical connection between the symbol and the Biblical figure found adjacent to it in the mosaics. [Read more…]