From our good friends at BYU and the Church History Department. You can follow up-to-date changes at the conference’s website.
______________________________
Approaching Antiquity:
Joseph Smith?s Study of the Ancient World
CHURCH HISTORY SYMPOSIUM
March 7-8, 2013
Jointly Sponsored by
The Department of Church History and Doctrine, Brigham Young University
The Church History Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Symposium Committee
Lincoln H. Blumell (Co-Chair), Department of Ancient Scripture
Matthew J. Grey (Co-Chair), Department of Ancient Scripture
Steven C. Harper, LDS Church History Department
Andrew H. Hedges, LDS Church History Department
Linda Godfrey (Secretary), Department of Church History and Doctrine
Thursday, March 7 ? Brigham Young University (Provo)
9:00-10:00 (HBLL Auditorium): Key Note Address
- Lincoln H. Blumell (Ancient Scripture, BYU), Welcome (10min)
- Richard L. Bushman (History, Columbia University), ?The Academic Study of Antiquity in Antebellum America? (45min)
10:15-11:45 (HBLL Auditorium): Scholars, Scripts, and Folklore of Antiquity
- Andrew H. Hedges (LDS Church History Department), Moderator
- Richard E. Bennett (Church History, BYU), ??To The Most Learned Men of this Generation?: Martin Harris and His Visits East, 1828? (25min)
- Michael Hubbard MacKay (LDS Church History Department), ??Git Them Translated?: Joseph Smith, Ancient Characters, and Translating the Plates? (25min)
- Steven C. Harper (LDS Church History Department), ?Joseph Smith?s Relationships to Hermeticism and Masonry? (25min)
- Richard L. Bushman (History, Columbia University), Respondent (15min)
1:30-3:30 (HBLL Auditorium): Joseph Smith and Ancient Texts
- Matthew J. Grey (Ancient Scripture, BYU), Moderator
- Jared Ludlow (Ancient Scripture, BYU), ?Joseph Smith?s Reading of Jewish Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha? (25min)
- Lincoln H. Blumell (Ancient Scripture, BYU), ?What has Palmyra to do with Jerusalem? Joseph Smith and the Writings of Flavius Josephus? (25min)
- Thomas A. Wayment (Ancient Scripture, BYU), ?Joseph Smith and Early Christian Apocrypha? (25min)
- Kristian S. Heal (Maxwell Institute, BYU), ?Joseph Smith and the Early Church Fathers? (25min)
- Benjamin E. Park (History, University of Cambridge), Respondent (15min)
3:45-4:45 (HBLL Auditorium): Joseph Smith?s Interest in the Ancient Americas
- Andrew H. Hedges (LDS Church History Department), Moderator
- Mark Alan Wright (Ancient Scripture, BYU), ?Joseph Smith and Native American Artifacts? (25min)
- Matthew Roper (Maxwell Institute, BYU), ?Joseph Smith and the Ruins: Central American Archaeology and Early Views about the Book of Mormon? (25min)
- Andrew H. Hedges (LDS Church History Department), Respondent (10min)
7:00-8:30 (JSB Auditorium): Plenary Session
- Elder Steven E. Snow (Church Historian and Recorder), Conducting
- Opening Song, ?Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise?
- Special Musical Number, ?If You Could Hie to Kolob?
- David F. Holland (History, UNLV), ?Joseph Smith and Antiquity: Points of Contact between the Prophet and the Ancient Sources? (50min)
Friday, March 8 ? LDS Church Conference Center (Salt Lake City)
9:00-11:45: Joseph Smith, the Bible, and 19th Century Biblical Scholarship
- Steven C. Harper (LDS Church History Department), Moderator
- Kent P. Jackson (Ancient Scripture, BYU), ?Joseph Smith and the Bible? (25min)
- Nicholas J. Frederick (Ancient Scripture, BYU), ?Joseph Smith and the Gospel of John? (25min)
- Justin R. Bray (LDS Church History Department), ?The Seventy Disciples in Early 19th Century Christian Thought? (25min)
- Break (10min)
- Samuel Brown (Medical Ethics and Humanities, University of Utah School of Medicine), ?The Prisca Theology in Early Mormonism? (25min)
- Matthew B. Bowman (Religion, Hampden-Sydney College), ?Joseph Smith and 19th c. Biblical Commentaries? (25min)
- David F. Holland (History, UNLV), Respondent (20min)
1:45-3:15: Joseph Smith?s Study of Biblical Languages
- Lincoln H. Blumell (Ancient Scripture, BYU), Moderator
- Matthew J. Grey (Ancient Scripture, BYU), ??The Word of God in the Original?: Joseph Smith?s Study of Hebrew and its Impact on His Translations, Thought, and Theology? (25min)
- Craig K. Manscill (Church History, BYU), ??By the Help of God I Can Read in the Hebrew Bible?: Hyrum Smith?s Study of Hebrew? (25min)
- John W. Welch (Law, BYU), ?Joseph Smith?s Awareness of Greek and Latin? (25min)
- Kevin L. Barney (Independent Scholar), Respondent (15min)
3:30-5:00: Joseph Smith and 19th Century Egyptology
- Lincoln H. Blumell (Ancient Scripture, BYU), Moderator
- John Gee (Maxwell Institute, BYU), ?Joseph Smith and Ancient Egypt? (25min)
- Kerry Muhlestein (Ancient Scripture, BYU), ?Joseph Smith and Egyptian Artifacts: Towards a Preliminary Paradigm for Evaluating Prophetic and Mundane Ideas Regarding Aspects of the Ancient World? (25min)
- Brian M. Hauglid (Ancient Scripture, BYU), ??Endowed with a Knowledge of Hidden Languages?: Joseph Smith and the Egyptian Project? (25min)
- John S. Thompson (Egyptology, University of Pennsylvania), Respondent (15min)
lots of good looking stuff.
something i’ve been wondering about: from the poster, right hand side, “… and god said, let there be light, and there was …” (text breaks off but there’s a profile of) joseph smith, as primal light/man?
i’d say it’s total coincidence but one of the papers *is* about hermeticism.
Comment by g.wesley — January 26, 2013 @ 8:56 pm
I love these conferences. Will there be video proceedings available for those who don’t live near by? If you’re going to have such a great conference it should be recorded for posterity (or at least would be appreciated by those who can’t be there).
Comment by J Stuart — January 27, 2013 @ 11:18 am