How much is the Church actually growing? Do we as a Church and its members expect to influence the way the world develops in the future? Will the Savior come and end it all, making our feeble efforts to no avail so we may as well be passive, or do we have a duty to …
Event: Salt Lake Symposium 2005
Chirographic Conundrum: The Unknown Scribe Of Joseph’s New Translation
The handwriting of seven distinct individuals has been identified as appearing on the manuscript of the Joseph Smith Translation. The identities of only six have been firmly established. Using documentary evidence and newly discovered handwriting samples, I will reveal the probable identity of this seventh scribe and discuss the implications of this insight for Joseph’s …
King Benjamin And The Yeoman Farmer: New Nation Suspicions Of Surplus-Market Agriculture
The descriptions of Nephite and Jaredite agriculture found in the Book of Mormon challenged the transition to market economics that was well underway in upstate New York by 1830 and condemned Jacksonian America for its treatment of the poor. Read in the context of a changing American economy, the Book of Mormon can be seen …
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 …
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
A Pope Story: How One Person Brought Down The Berlin Wall
On 13 May 1981, my father, Eugene England, was standing directly in front of the Pope when the Pope was shot. Moved by the powerful example John Paul II was to the Polish people, Dad chose to do something to support the nonviolent resistance of the Solidarity movement in Poland. This paper chronicles this event, …
Did Joseph Smith Use The Bible As A Rosetta Stone To Translate The Golden Plates?
The Book of Mormon contains nineteen chapters of Isaiah. If their position on the Golden Plates were marked, Joseph Smith had five years to use them to decipher Reformed Egyptian without magic. Could the sealed two-thirds of the plates witness Jesus Christ in America in other languages? Book of Mormon authenticity doesn’t require historicity. Terry …
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, …
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 …
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, …