The Academy for Temple Studies has posted a detailed schedule, including abstracts of the presentations, for the upcoming “The Lady of the Temple” Conference which will take place in Logan, Utah, on October 23, 2013. Click here to see the schedule and abstracts.
Don’t forget to register for the conference, as seating will be limited.
Those of you who like to read materials in hard print, or even if you just like to keep a print copy in your home library, The Interpreter Foundation has announced that they are now offering an annual print subscription to its journal, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture. I serve on the Executive Board of the foundation, and I can attest to the quality of the Board, the authors, and of the publications. There is fantastic new scholarship being published on the Church, the Gospel, Church history, the temple, the Book of Mormon, ancient religion, and all things Mormonism, and Interpreter is a great place to find it.
For $35 annually you can receive paperback copies of all volumes of the journal. That is a fantastic deal when you consider that the foundation is producing four or five volumes annually, or about 1000-1250 pages in a year. There is no royalty or markup of that price; it covers cost of printing and shipping only.
If you are interested in temple materials only, there have been a number of great articles related to the temple that have already been published in the journal, and it is a recurring theme. These have included the following to date:
Back in April I posted a quote from Professor William J. Hamblin about the relationship between the ancient Israelite temple and the endowment. Just recently I had the opportunity to attend a fireside where Professor Hamblin explained this much more fully, particularly what we can glean from the Old Testament about what happened inside the temple anciently, or, more importantly, what it all meant. His talk is embedded below as a video presentation.
I highly recommend this for those who would like to better understand the teachings and meaning of what occurred within the ancient Israelite temple, and how it might relate to our modern LDS temples today.
Here is a PDF of the slides of the presentation.
The conference “Enoch and the Temple,” which took place on February 19 and 22, 2013, in Logan, Utah, and Provo, Utah, respectively, was filmed. The videos are now available for free viewing in 1080p HD resolution, on the Academy for Temple Studies YouTube channel, the Academy’s website TempleStudies.org, as well as embedded below. [Read more…]
President Thomas S. Monson (photo by Brian Tibbets)
A few days ago, on February 1, 2013, the Church News published a rare new online message from President Thomas S. Monson, marking the fifth anniversary of his calling as prophet and President of the Church, and his reflection back on fifty years of service since his calling to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. This type of message from the prophet is a rare occurrence, perhaps unprecedented, and we should take special note.
In the message he reemphasizes the importance of temple work:
Our temple-building efforts continue unabated. During the past five years, 31 new temples have been announced. During this same period, 16 temples have been dedicated, with five others having been rededicated after extensive renovations. When the Tegucigalpa Honduras Temple is dedicated in March of this year, we will have 141 temples in operation throughout the world. These numbers will continue to increase as we move forward in making temples accessible to all of our members, wherever they may live.
We continue to emphasize the need for our members to move forward in the work for our deceased family members. Our mandate is to seek out our dead and to provide them with the opportunity to accept the ordinances and blessings of the gospel. We accomplish this by making certain the ordinances are performed for them. President Joseph F. Smith, speaking of work for the dead, declared, “Through our efforts in their behalf their chains of bondage will fall from them, and the darkness surrounding them will clear away, that light may shine upon them and they shall hear in the spirit world of the work that has been done for them by their children here, and will rejoice with you in your performance of these duties” (Conference Report, October 1916, p. 6).
Concluding his message President Monson notes his declining health, but ensures us that the Church is in good hands.
Read the full message at the Church News website.
