temple studies

BYU Studies Articles on the Temple

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byu_studies

BYU Studies

John W. Welch, Editor in Chief of BYU Studies, has informed me of a comprehensive list of articles dealing with the temple that have been published in the journal BYU Studies over the years. This is a fantastic collection of LDS scholarship on the temple, dealing with a wide variety of temple-related topics, including book reviews, with direct links to the articles on the BYU Studies website.

After clicking on the links below, you can click on the “Download Article/PDF: FREE” link on the right-hand side to download, read, and print a PDF of each article. The majority of these articles are free to download and read, but a few recently published articles might have a small price attached (BYU Studies subscribers can log in to the website to read these articles also for free).

The list is in alphabetical order by title. [Read more…]

“The Temple on Mount Zion” Conference

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In honor of Matthew B. Brown who passed away unexpectedly last year there will be a conference next month on September 22, 2012, from 9:15am – 5:30pm entitled “The Temple on Mount Zion.”  It will be held at the Provo Public Library.  Br. Brown was originally organizing this conference, and I chatted with him briefly about it in the months before his passing.  Matt was very excited about the potential in temple studies, and he always had very interesting new insights to share about the temple.  I’m glad to see this conference coming to fruition.  Thank you David Seely and William Hamblin for organizing this.

William Hamblin shares news of this event on his blog, including the program and abstracts.

With this conference and the other temple studies conference in Logan in October, we should have plenty to discuss over the coming months!

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.

Conference Announcement – “Mormonism and the Temple: Examining an Ancient Religious Tradition”

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Speakers at the symposium "Mormonism and the Temple: Examining an Ancient Religious Tradition"

Speakers at the symposium “Mormonism and the Temple: Examining an Ancient Religious Tradition”

A couple days ago I received notice of a new conference that will be taking place at Utah State University, in Logan, Utah, on October 29, 2012.  The topic will be “Mormonism and the Temple: Examining an Ancient Religious Tradition.”  This symposium comes as a collaboration between a new U.S. based temple studies organization called Academy for Temple Studies together with Utah State University Religious Studies program.

This looks like it will be a singular event, with a fantastic line-up of well-known scholars speaking about the temple throughout history!  I will certainly be in attendance, and hope to see many of you there too.  Please help spread the word of this inaugural conference by sharing news of this event with your friends and family.  It’s easy, you can click the “Like” button below to quickly share this link on your Facebook timeline with all your friends, or click the “Send” button below to quickly send this link privately to certain friends, family, groups, or any email address.  (Note, these buttons are only visible on the TempleStudy.com website.)

Here is the full press release about the conference:   [Read more…]

Anointing Rite in the Orthodox Church

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The Anointing of David

The Anointing of David

David Larsen at Heavenly Ascents continues to provide excellent notes from his attendance at the Temple Studies Group Symposium in London last weekend.  Recently he posted his notes on Archimandrite Ephrem‘s presentation about the Holy Oil in the Orthodox Church.  Father Ephrem gave out a handout which included detailed notes on the anointing rite in the Orthodox Church, which includes this portion:

The one to be baptized is brought forward. The Priest takes some of the oil and makes the sign of the Cross on the forehead, breast and back of the candidate, saying: The servant of God, N., is anointed with the oil of gladness, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As he signs their breast and back he says: For healing of soul and body. On the ears: For the hearing of faith. On the feet: For your feet to walk. On the hands: Your hands made me and fashioned me. And when the whole body has been anointed the Priest baptizes the person, holding them upright and facing East, as he says: The servant of God N. is baptized, in the name of the Father. Amen. And of the Son. Amen. And of the Holy Spirit. Amen. At each invocation the Priest immerses them and raises them again [three-fold immersion]. ((Handout from Archimandrite Ephrem in notes on Heavenly Ascents blog.  Notes in brackets are mine.))

Check out David Larsen’s Heavenly Ascents blog for more details from Father Ephrem’s presentation.