Traditionally, materialism reduces embodiment to static physical characteristics. Such an ontology is “dead” insofar as no reference to the life of a body is required to comprehend it. By contrast, I argue that we need to embrace a living materialism. To be embodied is to have a life. On this view, the claim that the …
Event: Salt Lake Symposium 2005
The Defense Of Cain
Prepare for a radical idea. Suppose Cain was framed?!! In this interactive, musical play, The Defense of Cain, the playwright claims that the scriptural record is one sided, that Cain has never had his day in court! This is that day. What are the implications of a possible ancient miscarriage of justice? How would the …
Plural Marriage Yesterday and Today & How Is the State of Utah Dealing with Contemporary Polygamy?
We are at the pioneering stages of embryonic research that promise great medical advancement. However, ethical guidelines have yet to be agreed upon regarding how far we go or how and when we utilize this technology. There is not, as of yet, any established LDS doctrine or official statement regarding the beginning of life nor …
Film: Go Forward
In a 1998 general conference address in which he addressed the issue of Latter-day Saints with same-sex attraction, President Hinckley expressed his love for them as sons and daughters of God, and added that “if they do not act upon [their same-sex] inclinations, then they can go forward as do all other members of the …
‘They Have Their Place’: Race And Identity In The Mormon Church
Through interrogating stories told by white Latter-day Saints to explain racial difference and justify subordinating and excluding people of color from full participation in the Church, this panel seeks to understand the past and present “place” of people of color in Mormonism, including how minority members and converts were and are viewed, understood, conceptualized, and …
Arnold Toynbee In Salt Lake City In 1967, His Relevance In 2005
In June 1967, the late, eminent English historian, Arnold Toynbee, visited the University of Utah at the invitation of Professor Calvin Taylor where he gave three addresses: “Three Generations in a Crisis,” “On the Role of Creativity in History,” and “Is America Neglecting Her Creative Talents?” Have things changed significantly in the nearly forty years …
Reincarnation and The Restoration: Does Joseph Smith’s Last Teaching Help Explain Pre-Mortality and Eternal Progression?
Shortly before his death, Joseph Smith taught several of his followers the principle of multiple mortal probations. How was he converted to this teaching? Which revelations are only understood if one presupposes reincarnation? How does this notion shed light on the prophet’s teachings about premortality, eternal progression, and deification? Robert Beckstead, Gae Lyn Henderson
David O. Mckay’s Lessons For Today’s Church
In the epilogue to the book David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism, co-author Greg Prince writes of President McKay: David O. McKay inherited a church that was provincial and backward looking. His immediate predecessors wore beards and came from polygamous families, two powerful symbols that were out of touch with modernism. . …
Frank Windham at Forty: Celebration of Levi Peterson’s ‘The Backslider’
Retracing his spiritual odyssey, Jack Newell weaves a colorful tapestry that includes a religiously diverse extended family, his Methodist upbringing in rural Ohio, and baptism into the Mormon Church when he was twenty-three years old, in the era of David O. McKay’s leadership and High B. Brown’s liberal influence. Proceeding through a series of inspiring …
Pillars Of My Faith
This is Sunstone’s perennially best-attended session. Hear speakers share the events and concepts that animate their religious lives; a little soul-baring, a little spiritual journey, a little intellectual testimony-bearing. This self-reflective night is about the things that matter most, plus spirited congregational hymn-singing. H. Parker Blount, Margaret Blair Young, Darius Gray