Professor William Hamblin has provided a great introduction to sacred symbolism in ancient temples in a video lecture. It’s lengthy since it’s a lecture, at 44 minutes, but it is full of great information and insights to be learned.
Dr. Hugh Nibley lecturing
As I posted a few months ago, 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, presented a weekly lecture series during the Winter Semester 2010 in honor of the 100th anniversary of Hugh Nibley’s birth, who was born on March 27, 1910.
The lecture series concluded on April 8th. I was able to attend some of the presentations, and they were very well done. I’m grateful to be able to get to know better the man, scholar, and saint, Hugh Nibley, and what he taught.
The Neal A. Maxwell Institute has reported that video of the lecture series presentations will be made available soon, likely on the Neal A. Maxwell website.
Transcripts of two of the lectures have already been made available:
The Institute also reports that an updated bibliography of Hugh Nibley’s works has been made available.
An article by Hugh Nibley has also been made available that has not been published in The Collected Works called “Beyond Politics.” The talk was given on October 26, 1973 to the Pi Sigma Alpha honor society in the Political Science Department at BYU. It first appeared in BYU Studies 15/1 (1974): 3–28; and was reprinted in Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless.
I’m still curious if these articles available here are still unpublished elsewhere in The Collected Works. If anyone knows, I’d be interested to find out if they have been published or will be published.
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:
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.
Hugh W. Nibley (1910-2005)
A couple weeks ago The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship announced a new series of lectures that will be given at BYU in honor of Hugh Nibley, on the 100th anniversary of his birth:
The Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies and Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, in conjunction with Religious Education and the Harold B. Lee library, will host a weekly lecture series on Thursday evenings during Winter semester of 2010. More information on this event will be posted soon.
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Val Brinkerhoff is an associate professor of photography in BYU’s Visual Arts Department, and over the last decade has focused his studies on sacred architecture, particularly of temples. He’s authored or co-authored a number of books, the three most recent being about finding the meaning of symbolism in sacred architecture. Yesterday he gave a lecture on this subject at BYU as part of the Kennedy Center Lectures. A video of the lecture is embedded below (on the website), or can be found at the Kennedy Center website. It is about an hour long, and provides a fascinating look into the symbolism of temples, ancient and modern. Thanks Lee!