My Creed: Writing One’s Personal Articles Of Faith For millennia, Christians have distilled their beliefs into short statements, similar to Joseph Smith’s Articles of Faith. While the practice of a committee imposing a creedal statement of belief on members is anathema to Mormons, the use of the literary form of the creed by individuals is …
Event: Salt Lake Symposium 2006
Annealing And Healing, Or New Wine In Old Bottles
Annealing And Healing, Or New Wine In Old Bottles Annealing and healing is a modern metaphor for the familiar Biblical one of new wine in old bottles. This presentation describes the physical process of annealing from a metallurgist’s point of view, showing how annealing (recrystallizing) a metal can be a useful metaphor for the spiritual …
The Indians Are Lamanites But The Los Angeles Times Is Not: An Alternate Interpretation Of DNA Results And Promises Made To The Chosen People Of The Americas
The Indians Are Lamanites But The Los Angeles Times Is Not: An Alternate Interpretation Of DNA Results And Promises Made To The Chosen People Of The Americas On February 16, 2006, William Lobdell, a staff writer with the Los Angeles Times, published an article headlined: “Bedrock of a Faith Is Jolted.” Whether or not the …
The Erotics Of Fifties Pop Culture (partial only)
The Erotics Of Fifties Pop Culture (partial only) Church leaders work hard to separate LDS young people from much of popular culture, certainly from the explicit sexuality in movies, on television, and on the Internet. In the wake of such efforts, a major industry has sprung up which provides entertainment that embodies LDS standards and …
The God Of This World: Gnostic Insights Into Mormonism
The God Of This World: Gnostic Insights Into Mormonism Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, with forty-plus million copies sold and a movie version, has highlighted the alternative Christianity of Gnosticism. In his The American Religion, Harold Bloom notes the Gnostic characteristics of Mormonism, such as belief in the uncreated essence of the individual and …
The Hunchback Prophet: Victim Of The Muses
The Hunchback Prophet: Victim Of The Muses Hugh Nibley gave a series of talks about sophic and mantic persons in society: the sophic offers the shallow, deceitful cleverness of public relations and spin, which often leads to success in this world, while the mantic (from Greek mantis, “seer”) looks to the eternal vision of things. …
Suicide Conversations With My Son
Suicide Conversations With My Son Our most significant moments are least discussed. Partly out of reverence. Mostly out of fear. If we live long enough and try hard enough, we may find time and opportunity to talk about everything: the sacred, the secret, the hard. Clifton Jolley has needed six children and two religions to …
Gays In The Mormon Universe
Gays In The Mormon Universe This session looks at how recent events in the gay civil rights struggle have impacted Mormons (both homosexual and heterosexual), their congregations, and their families. As other countries move toward equal rights for everyone, will Church leadership harden its stand even more? Can gay Mormons find a peaceful place in …
Reincarnation In Mormonism
Reincarnation In Mormonism Reincarnation has never been a wholly orthodox nor well- publicized facet of Mormon theology, yet it has a long history in the tradition. It has been taught and believed by a surprisingly large number of people in LDS society, including general authorities. Although never popular, some varieties of reincarnation have proven more …
Truth-Telling And Mormonism
Truth-Telling And Mormonism This session features two reflections on the issue of Mormon truth-telling. Scot Denhalter’s presentation focuses on the musings of Princeton moral philosopher Henry G. Frankfurt about a quality of misrepresentation that falls on the continuum between telling the truth and lying (somewhere just short of a lie), which he names “bullshit.” Denhalter …