By September 11, 2008
This afternoon, halfway through a wonderful presentation by David Whittaker on the relationship between Brigham Young and Thomas L. Kane, I realized that I probably should have brought my laptop so I could have taken notes to share. As a form of repentance, I figured I should post the remaining schedule on what should be a very interesting lecture series over the next six months:
By September 9, 2008
So I decided to save my textual analysis of The Backslider for next time and write about my current experience instead.
As I said in my bio, I’m a first-year student at Yale Divinity School. And this life-move came as much of a surprise to me. I never planned to go to divinity school and even now it seems extraordinary that I am here, where Jonathan Edwards was the “Dean of Discipline” in his day and counseled against “unseasonable and evil night walkings” (what?); where there is a room in the Sterling Divinity Quadrangle called the Revised Standard Version room, not as a polite homage but as a dedication to the work that actually took place there; where chapel is not a sedate occasion but a wonderfully planned liturgical event, combining hymn traditions from around the world with group prayers and divine scripture readings and sermons.
By September 8, 2008
Over at Religion in U.S. History, Kelly Baker highlights the recently-released Guitar Praise, the Christian alternative to Activision’s hit Guitar Hero. Baker summarizes the game’s purpose, noting that
Now, folks who are offended by secular rock music can rock out, in a wholesome way, to songs by Relient K, dc talk, and Caedmons Call among others. One can groove with a plastic guitar and praise at the same time. Digital Praise wants to combine interactive media with effective worship.
By September 8, 2008
On August 12, 2008, Ron Walker, Glen Leonard, and Richard Turley were at Salt Lake City’s Benchmark Books for a book signing and discussion. Again, our friend, the indefatigable Brent Brizzi was on hand and has provided the Juvenile Instructor with a transcript of the evening’s proceedings. It’s somewhat long, but all good, so I will post it parts. Before doing so, I just want to summarize for readers a few Mountain Meadows Massacre items that have been in the news lately:
By September 8, 2008
Ronald Walker: What an honor it is for us to be here with you, we’re honored by your presence, and by all this attention, historians aren’t used to this kind of, this kind of excitement, so thank you so much. I think what we want to do tonight is each one of us take maybe five, six, seven minutes to give you a feel for the book, and some of our thinking about the book, and then I think the uh, the vast majority of the time, I think we all agree should be Q&A. That’ll be the most fun.
By September 8, 2008
Richard Turley: I would like to talk a little bit about our methodology in writing the book, when we launched this project, our goal was not to work principally from the secondary sources that had been created in the past, but rather to find every primary source that we could find, and then let that evidence tell the story, and that task sent us, or those who were assisting us across the country looking for Mountain Meadows Massacre information, because this was a celebrated case during it’s time, and because the people who either participated in the massacre or later investigated it got scattered across the country, the bits and pieces were scattered like a giant jigsaw puzzle across the continent.
By September 8, 2008
Glen Leonard: In his comments in reviewing the book prior to publication, Richard Bushman mentioned this, “Though I knew the end from the beginning, I began to sweat as the narrative approached its fatal climax. The authors won’t let us turn our gaze away from the horrors of that moment”. One of the copy editors said something similarly, “this is a page turner, she said”. [pause] I’d like to turn a few pages. I’d like to take you into the book, and give you a sample of the narrative, as an illustration of what we were trying to accomplish by taking the facts, drawing our conclusions, and then casting them into a narrative voice.
By September 8, 2008
Curt Bench: I’m sure you will agree that was a tremendous, brief presentation, a good introduction to the book. Now we’d like to entertain any questions you may have, if you’d like to raise your hand we’ll get to you as soon as we can, and if you have a certain author in mind, just designate that OK.
Q: To any and all of you, is it true that they, the perpetrators held prayer circles just prior to the massacre? And if so what does this say about their mindset at the time?
By September 6, 2008
Thank you for your kind intro, Chris. What follows is a general response, or superstructure, to eight points Matt B. wrote for his discussion group, which he will be posting soon:
Art is dangerous. The person who fully engages with any piece of art runs the risk of being changed/transformed in fundamental ways. And many times we don?t control the ways in which we are transformed (both good and bad). I am a passionate proponent of art, not opponent as these statements might make me sound. We should be wary of those who uncritically guard against such transformation through blind prohibition of certain kinds of art. Such prohibitions can arise out of fear. But we should also be wary of artworks that offer transformation carte
By September 6, 2008
Q&A
Q: For Turley, In 1856, also during reformation, over 200 died in handcart disaster…given that F. D. Richards urged the group forward, blind faith, not questioning authority…a connection?
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