Event: Salt Lake Symposium 2001

Punishment for Crime–How Much is Enough?: A Religious Perspective on the Philosophies of Criminal Punishment

Punishment for Crime–How Much is Enough?: A Religious Perspective on the Philosophies of Criminal Punishment Against the backdrop of America’s record prison population, recent public debate over severe sentencing policies, and high-profile cases of capital punishment, representatives of several religious faiths explore the issue of punishment for crime. The focus will be on religious answers …

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‘Exploring Mormon Thought: The Attributes of God’

‘Exploring Mormon Thought: The Attributes of God’ In the first volume of a planned series of works on Mormon thought, Blake T. Ostler explores Christian and Mormon notions about God. In it, he provides an overview of the most influential Christian notions of deity, exploring themes and resources within this discourse that might be helpful …

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Why Mormons Should Celebrate Holy Week

Why Mormons Should Celebrate Holy Week The week between Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem and his triumphant resurrection from the dead is the most significant week in human history. Beginning with the early church, Christians celebrated the events of this week and for two millennia they have been the focus of annual celebrations of what …

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Why do Mormons Continue to Believe and Practice?

Why do Mormons Continue to Believe and Practice? From a strictly naturalistic view, the last fifty years have failed to bring much support for the supernatural claims of Joseph Smith. On the other hand, critics have been compiling evidence that contradicts those claims. Yet, Mormonism continues to thrive and expand, suggesting psychological reasons for the …

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Mormon Women in the 21st Century

Mormon Women in the 21st Century Six years ago, I presented ‘Issues in Contemporary Mormon Feminism” at the first-ever Mormon Studies Conference at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. This paper, revised since I presented it initially at the second Mormon Studies Conference (University of Durham, UK, 1999), takes an updated look at official, quasi-official, …

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Sex: Eternal Blessing or Perpetual Problem?

Sex: Eternal Blessing or Perpetual Problem? Sex and sexuality are essential to the experience of what it is to be human. Religions profoundly affect the ways in which people view their sexuality and how they express it in their lives. Mormon theology has several fundamental teachings which promote a positive view of sexuality and sexual …

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