{"id":24317,"date":"2013-01-27T11:15:31","date_gmt":"2013-01-27T16:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=24317"},"modified":"2013-01-27T11:15:32","modified_gmt":"2013-01-27T16:15:32","slug":"church-history-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2013\/01\/church-history-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Church History Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Abraham_Facsimile_2\"<\/a>There is a Church History Conference at BYU March 7-8 entitled “Approaching Antiquity:\u00a0Joseph Smith and the Ancient World” (see details below). I find two things interesting about this conference:<\/p>\n

1. The structure of the conference itself. The Church History Department and the BYU Department of Religion are co-sponsoring the conference, and while most of the lineup consists of BYU Religion professors there is also a significant lineup of non-BYU scholars, including Richard Bushman, Matt Bowman, and Kevin Barney. This strikes me as something different than I might have expected.<\/p>\n

2. The content of the conference. To date much of the discussion about Joseph Smith and the ancient world has been a polemic between those who see Joseph’s knowledge and use of ancient themes, symbols, practices, and the like to be clear evidence of divine intervention, and those who see Joseph as a crafty religious plagiarist, creatively selecting a la carte from the various ancient studies resources he came across in early 19th century America. Again, the content of the conference appears to be taking a different tack.<\/p>\n

If nothing else, this conference strikes me as another sign that Elder Snow (who will speak at the conference) is following in the footsteps of his most recent predecessor as head of Church History. Once again, while Bro. Arrington may have lost some key battles, it looks like he won the war.<\/p>\n

Thoughts?<\/p>\n

******<\/p>\n

Conference Program:<\/p>\n

Symposium Committee<\/p>\n

Lincoln H. Blumell (Co-Chair), Department of Ancient Scripture<\/p>\n

Matthew J. Grey (Co-Chair), Department of Ancient Scripture<\/p>\n

Steven C. Harper, LDS Church History Department<\/p>\n

Andrew H. Hedges, LDS Church History Department<\/p>\n

Linda Godfrey (Secretary), Department of Church History and Doctrine<\/p>\n

Thursday, March 7 \u2013 Brigham Young University (Provo)<\/b><\/p>\n

9:00-10:00 (HBLL Auditorium): Key Note Address<\/p>\n

Lincoln H. Blumell<\/i> (Ancient Scripture, BYU), Welcome (10min)<\/p>\n

Richard L. Bushman<\/i> (History, Columbia University), \u201cThe Academic Study of Antiquity in Antebellum America\u201d (45min)<\/p>\n

10:15-11:45 (HBLL Auditorium): Scholars, Scripts, and Folklore of Antiquity<\/p>\n

Andrew H. Hedges<\/i> (LDS Church History Department), Moderator<\/p>\n

Richard E. Bennett<\/i> (Church History, BYU), \u201c\u2018To The Most Learned Men of this Generation\u2019: Martin Harris and His Visits East, 1828\u201d (25min)<\/p>\n

Michael Hubbard MacKay<\/i> (LDS Church History Department), \u201c\u2018Git Them Translated\u2019: Joseph Smith, Ancient Characters, and Translating the Plates\u201d (25min)<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Steven C. Harper<\/i> (LDS Church History Department), \u201cJoseph Smith\u2019s Relationships to Hermeticism and Masonry\u201d (25min)<\/p>\n

Richard L. Bushman<\/i> (History, Columbia University), Respondent (15min)<\/p>\n

12:00-1:15 (Wilkinson Center Sky Room): Lunch for Presenters and Respondent<\/p>\n

1:30-3:30 (HBLL Auditorium): Joseph Smith and Ancient Texts<\/p>\n

Matthew J. Grey<\/i> (Ancient Scripture, BYU), Moderator<\/p>\n

Jared Ludlow<\/i> (Ancient Scripture, BYU), \u201cJoseph Smith\u2019s Reading of Jewish Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha\u201d (25min)<\/p>\n

Lincoln H. Blumell<\/i> (Ancient Scripture, BYU), \u201cWhat has Palmyra to do with Jerusalem? Joseph Smith and the Writings of Flavius Josephus\u201d (25min)<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thomas A. Wayment<\/i> (Ancient Scripture, BYU), \u201cJoseph Smith and Early Christian Apocrypha\u201d (25min)<\/p>\n

Kristian S. Heal<\/i> (Maxwell Institute, BYU), \u201cJoseph Smith and the Early Church Fathers\u201d (25min)<\/p>\n

Benjamin E. Park<\/i> (History, University of Cambridge), Respondent \u00a0(15min)<\/p>\n

3:45-4:45 (HBLL Auditorium): Joseph Smith\u2019s Interest in the Ancient Americas<\/p>\n

Andrew H. Hedges<\/i> (LDS Church History Department), Moderator<\/p>\n

Mark Alan Wright<\/i> (Ancient Scripture, BYU), \u201cJoseph Smith and Native \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 American Artifacts\u201d (25min)<\/p>\n

Matthew Roper<\/i> (Maxwell Institute, BYU), \u201cJoseph Smith and the Ruins: Central \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 American Archaeology and Early Views about the Book of Mormon\u201d (25min)<\/p>\n

Andrew H. Hedges<\/i> (LDS Church History Department), Respondent (10min)<\/p>\n

5:00-6:30 (President\u2019s Room): Dinner for Plenary and Key Note Guests<\/p>\n

7:00-8:30 (JSB Auditorium): Plenary Session<\/p>\n

Elder Steven E. Snow<\/i> (Church Historian and Recorder), Conducting<\/p>\n

Opening Song, \u201cLet Zion in Her Beauty Rise\u201d<\/p>\n

Special Musical Number, \u201cIf You Could Hie to Kolob\u201d<\/p>\n

David F. Holland<\/i> (History, UNLV), \u201cJoseph Smith and Antiquity: Points of Contact between the Prophet and the Ancient Sources\u201d (50min)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a Church History Conference at BYU March 7-8 entitled “Approaching Antiquity:\u00a0Joseph Smith and the Ancient World” (see details below). I find two things interesting about this conference: 1. The structure of the conference itself. The Church History Department and the BYU Department of Religion are co-sponsoring the conference, and while most of the lineup consists of BYU Religion professors there is also a significant lineup of non-BYU scholars, including Richard Bushman, Matt Bowman, and Kevin Barney. This strikes me as something different than I might have expected. 2. The content of the conference. To date much of the discussion about Joseph Smith and the ancient world has been a polemic between those who see Joseph’s knowledge and use of ancient themes, symbols, practices, and the like to be clear evidence of divine intervention, and those who see Joseph as a crafty religious plagiarist, creatively selecting a la carte from the various ancient studies resources he came across in early 19th century America. Again, the content of the conference appears to be taking a different tack. If nothing else, this conference strikes me as another sign that Elder Snow (who will speak at the conference) is following in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":24319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-corn"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/2013-Church-History-Conference-Poster.tiff","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24317"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24327,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24317\/revisions\/24327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}