Event: Salt Lake Symposium 2005

Seeing The Seer With New Eyes: Revisioning Joseph Smith

In the past two decades, groundbreaking views by scholars such as D. Michael Quinn, Harold Bloom, John L. Brooke, Jan Shipps, William D. Morain, Lance S. Owens, G. Benson Whittle, C. Jess Groesbeck, and others, have repositioned Joseph Smith as an intuitive voice working within alternative worldviews or traditions, such as folk magic, hermeticism, creative …

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Ella Peacock: Painting The Manti Temple

Through a blend of memoir, biography, and film, this session presents Ella Peacock, an artist and unusual Mormon woman who met Church expectations on her own terms, and whose life has had a great influence on Abajian and her decisions about her place in the Church. Kathryn Abajian

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Joseph Smith, Women, and The Feminine

This panel examines Joseph Smith’s life and teachings in relationship to women. How did Joseph treat women? What influence did they have on him? What role did they play in his life and theology? In ushering in “the restoration of all things,” what did Joseph restore about women and the feminine? Janice Allred, Margaret Toscano, …

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Why We Stay

This perennially well-received session features the stories of those who have chosen to remain active, dedicated Latter-day Saints even in the face of many difficult challenges to traditional faith. How have these members wrestled with their faith and yet emerged more determined than ever to be a part of the Latter-day Saint community? J. Frederick …

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Are Mormon Democrats Coming Out Of Extinction?

In April 1998, Elder Marlin K. Jensen told the Salt Lake Tribune that Church leaders feel “it’s not in the best interest [of the Church] to be known as a one-party church.” With the rise of Senator Harry Reid to Senate minority leader, and with a growing disenchantment with Bush administration policies on faith-based initiatives, …

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