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Hugh Nibley Weekly Lecture Series Beginning Tonight at BYU

January 14, 2010 by Bryce Haymond 10 Comments

Dr. Richard Bushman

The Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies and the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), in conjunction with Religious Education and the Harold B. Lee library, are hosting a weekly lecture series that begins tonight, January 14th, 2010, at 7:00pm, and extends through Winter Semester 2010 on Thursday evenings in the Harold B. Lee Library Auditorium at BYU.

This lecture series is in honor of the 100th anniversary of Hugh Nibley’s birth this year. Hugh Nibley was born on March 27, 1910.

The presenters at these lectures will include Richard Bushman, Robert Millet, Terry Ball, Daniel Peterson, Zina Petersen, Ann Madsen, Alex Nibley, Bert Wilson, John Welch, Marilyn Arnold, Eric Huntsman, and Gaballa Ali Gaballa.

Tonight’s lecture is by Richard Bushman, biographer of Joseph Smith (Rough Stone Rolling), and an editor of the Joseph Smith Papers Project. His topic is “Nibley and Joseph Smith.” Next week’s lecture, January 21st, will be by Robert Millet who will present on “Nibley and the Church.”

I’m looking forward to these lectures. Hugh Nibley catapulted LDS scholarship and apologetics into a new dimension, and his work will affect many generations of Latter-day Saints to come. His work on the temple has particularly influenced me, and many others I know.

Update 1/15/10: The lecture was wonderful last night. And there’s good news! There were three cameras there filming it, which I think they will continue for the series, which means that they are planning on putting it all on TV or making it available somehow for later viewing (perhaps online). They also gave the rest of the series schedule of lectures:

14 Jan – “Nibley and Joseph Smith” – Richard Bushman
21 Jan – “Nibley and the Church” – Robert Millet
28 Jan – “Nibley’s Early Education” – Zina Petersen
4 Feb – “Nibley as Apologist” – Daniel Peterson
11 Feb – “Nibley and the environment” – Terry Ball
18 Feb – “Graduate School through BYU” – Alex Nibley
25 Feb – “Nibley on the Bible” – Ann Madsen
4 Mar – “Folklore on Nibley” – Bert Wilson
11 Mar – “The Lasting Legacies of Hugh W. Nibley” – John W. Welch
18 Mar – “Nibley and Classical Scholarship” – Eric Huntsman
25 Mar – “Nibley on the Book of Mormon” – Marilyn Arnold
1 Apr – “Nibley the Mentor” – Wilfred Griggs
8 Apr – “Nibley, Egyptology & the Book of Abraham” – TBA

These lectures will all be held in the Harold B. Lee Library Auditorium (Level 1) at 7:00pm. This is a great lineup! If you plan on coming to these lectures, make sure you come early to get a seat, as the room was filled to overflowing last night.

Attaining the Resurrection in Mortality

October 19, 2009 by Bryce Haymond 11 Comments

Margaret Barker

The use of those two words together, resurrection in mortality, appears to be perfectly incongruous at first glance. In our common parlance in the Church we understand resurrection to be something that can only happen after mortality. The resurrection “consists in the uniting of a spirit body with a body of flesh and bones, never again to be divided” ((“Resurrection.” LDS Bible Dictionary. http://scriptures.lds.org/en/bd/r/28)). This is an event which happens only after there has been a separation of the spirit body from the mortal body through the process called death. In my reading over the weekend, however, I came across a fascinating perspective from Margaret Barker which gives added meaning to the word resurrection, and our understanding of it, a meaning which can apply to us while still in our mortal estate. [Read more…]

Preview: “The Sermon on the Mount in the Light of the Temple,” by John Welch

September 27, 2008 by Bryce Haymond 8 Comments

Detail from Sacrament, by Minerva Teichert (ca. 1935). On display in the JSB at BYU.

Last night at the Third Nephi conference held at BYU, Professor John W. Welch gave the keynote address. His topic was “New Insights Into the Temple Setting of the Sermon on the Mount in Reference to the Sermon at the Temple.” It was an excellent address, after which Paul Y. Hoskisson, the director of the Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies, remarked that he was overwhelmed by what he just heard. You can read my notes on the conference last night here.

One of the things Professor Welch did was give a free handout to all those who were in attendance to outline some of the things he was going to cover, and topics he has written about in an upcoming book. I have included this handout embedded at the end of this post. Professor Welch has been studying this topic since about 1988 when he first wrote a FARMS Update article entitled “The Sermon at the Temple,” in which he wrote of 3 Nephi 11-18 as a text which “offers clues to connect the [Sermon on the Mount] with the making of covenants at the temple” ((FARMS Update, March 1988.)). [Read more…]

The “Mark” of Anointing

August 12, 2008 by Bryce Haymond 9 Comments

The Annointing of David by Samuel, Breviary of Martin d'Aragon, 14th Century.

A few days ago I read a post by James over at his superb blog, Lehi’s Library, entitled, “Looking Beyond the Mark: Insights from Margaret Barker.” In it, James refers to an excellent article by Kevin Christensen who talks about the Deuteronomist de-Christianizing of the Old Testament and Josiah’s reforms ((Kevin Christensen, “The Deuteronomist De-Christianizing of the Old Testament,” FARMS Review, 16.2, http://farms.byu.edu/publications/review/?vol=16&num=2&id=547)). I thought he made some great points that I want to reiterate and further discuss. [Read more…]

Brief Intro to the Joseph Smith Papyri and Book of Abraham

July 2, 2008 by Bryce Haymond 10 Comments

Note: This was going to be the next part of the series on the Egyptian ankh, and its relationship with the papyri and Book of Abraham, but I thought an intro to these first would be a better place to start.

Let’s return again to the subject of the ankh, and related symbols, that we’ve briefly studied, and look to see if these symbols figure at all on the Joseph Smith Papyri. As we’ve seen, these particular hieroglyphs have a strong connection to temple themes, being bestowed by the Egyptian gods in a manner reminiscent of the way eternal life is portrayed symbolically in the temple today. But do these symbols appear on the papyri from which the Book of Abraham was translated, or in the facsimiles, and what does that mean? [Read more…]