symposium

Sacred Space Symposium at BYU – June 3rd, 2009

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Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple

Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple

This Wednesday, June 3rd, the Richard L. Evans Chair of Religious Understanding at BYU will be sponsoring an academic symposium entitled “Sacred Space.”  The symposium will commence at 9:15 a.m. at the Gordon B. Hinckley Center at Brigham Young University, with a welcome from President Cecil O. Samuelson.  Presenters will include Terryl Givens, Richard A. Cohen, Jeanne H. Kilde, Hamid Mavani, Michael Fishbane, Steven Olsen, and Laurie Maffly-Kipp.  There will also be a panel discussion in the evening with Richard Bushman as moderator.

The symposium comes in recognition of the open house of the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple, and will discuss the idea of sacred space among several scholars of different religious backgrounds.  It should be very interesting.  I’m planning on attending.  I’m still unsure whether I will liveblog it or not.  The last time I liveblogged a BYU conference, it did not seem like there was that much interest.  Let me know if you would be interested in a liveblog.

More information, including presentation topics, can be found at the Times and Seasons blog, and this BYU News Release.

Final SANE Symposium Videos Available

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The last of the lectures given at the SANE Symposium have been made available online.  They are all listed at this link:

http://templestudy.com/2008/11/11/videos-of-sane-symposium-lectures-on-temples-and-ritual-in-antiquity/

Some of the lectures are only currently available on YouTube, but will be also be made available uncut on Google Video in the coming days.

Living the Law of Consecration – Part 1: The Mythic “Folk Memory”

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“Some day we will live the law of consecration again, but until then we must be ‘willing’ to live it.”

“It is Church doctrine that the full Law of Consecration was suspended by the Lord through the Prophet in 1834.”

“My belief is that things will get progressively worse until the actual Second Coming when Christ will institute the law of consecration.”

Have you ever heard these types of statements before?  Each one comes from active, church-going, temple-attending, members of the Church.  Each of them was said to me in conversation over the past two weeks.  Each one is also, unfortunately, untrue.  [Read more…]

Videos of SANE Symposium Lectures on “Temples and Ritual in Antiquity”

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Last Friday I was able to attend the symposium entitled “Temples and Ritual in Antiquity,” sponsored by The Students of the Ancient Near East (SANE) and the Religious Studies Center at Brigham Young University.  It was an excellent symposium about the temple, with a wide range of topics related to the temple presented by students and scholars.  I was also fortunate to help organize videotaping the symposium so that it will be preserved and available online for many others to see and study.  In addition to the great things that were shared, I was also able to meet several of the people I have become acquainted with online, such as David Larsen, “Particle Man,” Kathy Larsen, Donna Nielsen, and several others.  It was a great experience.  I hope SANE will continue to sponsor such symposiums in the future.

I am grateful for the SANE organizers for allowing us to videotape the symposium and make it available online, particularly Dan McLellan for his support.  I’d also like to thank Steve Smoot and Tyler Livingston for their help with the video cameras, digitizing and uploading.

Below are all the videos that we were able to record at the symposium (that have been uploaded to date).  You can see short bios of each presenter here or here.  David Larsen also took some great notes in the Ancient Israel sessions.  Note:  I will update this post with links to more of the videos as soon as they become available.  Enjoy! [Read more…]

New Webpage for BYU SANE Symposium on Temples on November 7th

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Flyer

Flyer

The BYU Religious Studies Center has posted a new webpage with information about the Students of the Ancient Near East Symposium entitled “Temples and Ritual In Antiquity” that will be taking place at BYU on November 7th.  They have the date, time, location, maps, schedule, phone number, flyer, and other information available.  See it here:

http://www.rsc.byu.edu/comingSoonAntiqua.php

I’m really looking forward to this conference.  I am working with the organizers of the symposium to hopefully videotape all the presentations and make them available online later.  I might even be able to live broadcast one of the rooms to the internet, so those that are unable to attend can still participate.  Stay tuned…