I thought I would let the whole Feast community know that there will be a conference on 2 Nephi 26-27 at BYU, in the basement auditorium of the Harold B. Lee Library, on April 15th, starting at 9 a.m. It is part of the Mormon Theology Seminar (see here, and is being co-hosted by the Richard L. Evans Chair of Religious Understanding (a.k.a., Jim F.).

The schedule:

9 a.m. – Jenny Webb, “Slumbering Voices: Death and Textuality in Second Nephi”
10 a.m. – George Handley, “On the Moral Challenges of Reading Scripture”
11 a.m. – Kim Matheson, “Works of Darkness: Secret Combinations and Covenant Displacement in the Book of Mormon”
12 p.m. – break for lunch
1 p.m. – Joseph M. Spencer, “Nephi, Isaiah, and Europe”
2 p.m. – Julie Frederick, “Seals, Symbols, and Sacred Texts: Sealing in the Book of Mormon”
3 p.m. – Heather and Grant Hardy, “How Nephi Shapes His Readers’ Perceptions of Isaiah”
4 p.m. – Sam Brown, Respondent

The conference is the culmination of several months’ online collaborative study of 2 Nephi 26-27 (Nephi’s adaptation of Isaiah 29), all of which can be read here.

Any questions about the conference can be posted here. Feel free to pass this information along to anyone else. If you would like a file of the official poster, simply put a note here, and we’ll arrange that.

Here is some brief history of what was going on during the time of Sections 20-26. I’m in a rush (and it’s been a very busy two weeks!), so I may add more commentary later. Will definitely clean up the layout today or tomorrow.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sorry to post about something not directly pertaining to a church lesson but there is an event at BYU next week that I wanted to let the Feasters who live in the area know about.  The event is called “Speaking Across Differences”  at the BYU law school, on Wednesday March 11th @ noon in Library Room 275/276. 

It consists of a screening of my short film The Constant Process about the life journey and theology of lesbian priest Susan Russell.  There will also be a discussion (with me) afterwards that I hope will address a number of topics: from the audience’s personal responses to Susan’s story , to the ethics of engaging the other, to personal responses to the ethical / theological dimensions of prop 8.

If you can, please attend, it’s an opportunity for thoughtful dialogue around challenging issues.