Brian Birch-The Awkwardness of Mormonism and its Place in Religious Studies

Brian D. Birch is director of Utah Valley University’s Religious Studies Program and serves on the Board of Directors for Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. He is director of the recently created Mormon Chapter of the Foundation for Interreligious Diplomacy, and a member of the steering committee for the American Academy of Religion’s Mormon Studies Consultation. His latest book, Mormonism and Christian Thought is forthcoming through Oxford University Press. Brian participated in the September 8, 2009 informal discussion on Religious Studies and Mormon Studies at the University of Utah (see this announcement) and, like Dr. Phil Barlow, has been kind enough to share a version of his remarks here at the Juvenile Instructor.

The Awkwardness of Mormonism and its Place in Religious Studies

Good afternoon. It is a pleasure to be here and to be among good friends and colleagues.

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Conference Announcement: Latter-day Saint Readings of Revelation 21-22

From Joseph Spencer:

A conference, “Latter-day Saint Readings of Revelation 21-22,” will be
held on September 25th on the UT-Austin campus, in the Theater in the
Texas Union (Room 2.228).

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Here comes Brittany.

Please welcome our new guest blogger.

Brittany has an MA in Victorian Studies from the University of Leicester (U.K.) and BA in Humanities from BYU. She takes special interest in nineteenth-century life writings (diaries, autobiographies, correspondence) and Utah women’s history. Brittany is currently editing the life writings of Ruth May Fox, which will be published by the University of Utah Press in 2010. She works at the LDS Church History Library in Salt Lake City and likes to do fun stuff–especially if it involves the outdoors, travel, literature, and being with friends and fam. And Red Robin hamburgers.

An Insider’s View of Early Mormonism. . .and Methodism

After months of anticipation, the JI’s Christopher has successfully completed his MA thesis at BYU. The thesis examines the influence of Methodism on early Mormon history, and will doubtless be a valuable contribution. It is available on-line here and I’ve reproduced the abstract after the jump:

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MHA 2010: Call For Papers

Mormon History Association
2010 Independence Missouri Conference
Call for Papers
The Home and the Homeland:
Families in Diverse Mormon Traditions

The forty-fifth annual conference of the Mormon History Association will be held May 27-30, 2010, at the Kansas City Sports Complex Hotel in Kansas City, MO. It has been twenty-five years since the last MHA conference was held in Missouri. The 2010 theme, ?The Home and the Homeland: Families in Diverse Mormon Traditions? recognizes the family as a central social and religious institution within Mormon traditions.

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2009 Summer Seminar Symposium: Schedule

Parley and Orson Pratt and Nineteenth-Century Mormon Thought

Public Symposium at Brigham Young University

Sponsored by the Mormon Scholars Foundation

July 2, 2009

B092 of the Joseph F. Smith Building at BYU

In the tradition of Richard Bushman?s summer seminars on Joseph Smith and early Mormonism, eight graduate students, under the direction of Terryl Givens and Matthew Grow, have studied the writings of Orson and Parley Pratt and will be presenting their research at this symposium. The seminar has been hosted by the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship.

10:00 Terryl Givens, University of Richmond, Introduction

10:10 Ryan Tobler, University of Chicago, ?Parley Pratt and Evolving Views of the American Republic in Early

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Sacred Space at BYU, June 3, 2009: Conference and metaconference

I

There’s been a lot of enthusiasm for this conference, and every inch of it deserved. Not a cubic zirconium among the presentations, and more than one absolute diamond (Laurie Maffly-Kipp on preparation; Richard Cohen on the Hebrew temple). This was an impressive and a diverse kaleidoscope, and the most interesting thing was the way, one after another, each speaker demonstrated the point Jeanne Halgren Kilde made – that talking about sacred space, at its essence, is talking about the way we experience religion. Space matters because people do things in it.

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Sacred Space Symposium Notes: Steve Olsen, “The Mormon Quest for Zion”

[My last contribution to JI’s attempt to recreate this wonderful symposium]

Steve Olsen, “The Mormon Quest for Zion”

Although not a lawyer, Olsen presented his paper point-by-point as if arguing a case. Further, he used powerpoint to present each point. As such, I think the best way to stay true to his presentation is to post each point that he put up (they are all pretty self-explanatory). These are his thoughts on the development of Mormon thought of “sacred space.”

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Sacred Space Symposium Notes: Jeanne Halgren Kilde, Sacred Space, and Architecture

[Again, take these as my far-from-perfect reformulations of a spectacular presentation]

Jeanne Halgren Kilde, “Foregrounding the Background: Power and Proximity in Sacred Space

Kilde began her fascinating presentation with a defense for the study of sacred space. She credited us for wanting to engage the issue, because it is largely in the background of religious scholarships. This neglect is mostly because of two reasons: first, we often focus on texts as the best representation of religious thought. Second, when we do move beyond texts, we mostly focus on ritual. This leaves out an important part of the ‘soul’ of religious worship: the actual space—the architecture, the layout, and the physical appearance of how and where worship occurs. She argues that we can gain access to the believer’s mind by looking at how they viewed space as an element of religion. Specifically to her research, Kilde has focused on what sacred space can tell us about the evolving idea of authority.[1]

Kilde gave several great examples of how this approach can reveal much about religious history.

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Sacred Space Symposium Notes: Terryl Givens, “Contexts for an LDS Temple Theology”

What follows is my sporadic, poor attempt of reformulation, added by notes, of Givens’s presentation–take them as such.

Terryl Givens, “Contexts for an LDS Temple”

Givens introduced his presentation by explaining that he would address the temple in four different contexts. First, within the context of JS’s ideas of apostasy and restoration. Second, through the lens of the temple as human anthropology, or the eternal potential of pre- and post-mortal possibilities. Third, as a response to the Romantic notion of natural supernaturalism. And fourth, addressing the possibility of a “weeping God.”

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