Forty Days and Forty Nights: The Growing Role of Religions in the Urgent Fight for Environmental Sustainability One Nobel prize-winning biologist from Stanford recently articulated the consensus of hope among biologists: to limit the extinction of species on earth to only 30 percent during this century. This is just one item indicating the enormous environmental …
Event: Salt Lake Symposium 2008
Pillars of My Faith
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. Dan Wotherspoon, Susan D. Skoor
Author Meets Critics. Shaken Faith Syndrome: Strengthening One’s Testimony in the Face of Criticism and Doubt
Author Meets Critics. Shaken Faith Syndrome: Strengthening One’s Testimony in the Face of Criticism and Doubt Using very selective presentations of the evidence, many groups target Mormons in the hope of creating doubt and disillusionment. And sometimes they succeed, as many Latter-day Saints are unaware that faith-shaking claims have been addressed time and again. A …
Mormonism in the Academy: Prospects and Challenges
Mormonism in the Academy: Prospects and Challenges A recent Boston Globe story led with the headline, ‘Colleges scramble to offer curriculum on Mormon religion.’ While certainly not a fixture in the academy, Mormonism in the past few years has experienced a dramatic rise in academic interest, which in turn has led to the formation of …
Grappling with Theodicy in Mormonism: Why Does an All-Knowing, All-Loving, and All-Powerful God Permit Evil and other Bad Things to Happen?
Grappling with Theodicy in Mormonism: Why Does an All-Knowing, All-Loving, and All-Powerful God Permit Evil and other Bad Things to Happen? Come flex your intellectual and spiritual muscles in response to one of the most vexing issues in all theological discourse: the problem of evil. Guided by the presenter, this session will be based largely …
Re-Reading a New World Scripture: The Reader’s Book of Mormon
Re-Reading a New World Scripture: The Reader’s Book of Mormon The Book of Mormon has been printed in many shapes and forms. The newest is The Reader’s Book of Mormon, published this spring by Signature Press. Patterned after the Pocket Canon Bible, this edition, edited by Robert A. Rees and the late Eugene England, consists …
Stories from the Borderlands
Stories from the Borderlands Many of us at this symposium are in the LDS ‘Borderlands’ in one way or another, and we’ve all had interesting, funny, or troubling experiences. We’ve also overcome difficulties and challenges (or we wouldn’t be here!). I will share a few reflections and experiences on Borderlander topics, but I mainly want …
Drawing Inspiration from Reading Scripture as Metaphor and Symbol
Drawing Inspiration from Reading Scripture as Metaphor and Symbol In this devotional, I examine a New Testament parable that is clearly meant to be read as a metaphor for our own life but which offers multiple possible interpretations, and I then discuss other scriptural accounts that can be read either historically or metaphorically. A common …
Short Play. The Children of Tantalus
Short Play. The Children of Tantalus The play, The Children of Tantalus, features men of the postmodern, twentieth century who do not appear to fit normative standards of masculine behavior and desire, and are consequently led to question their sexuality. The story is told from the perspective of Ethan, a college-aged, gay Mormon, who shortly …
Purposeful Strangers: Examining Ex-Mormon Narratives and Reasons People Give for Leaving the Church
Purposeful Strangers: Examining Ex-Mormon Narratives and Reasons People Give for Leaving the Church This dual-paper session looks at the issue of why people leave the Church and the paths they often take upon their exit. Seth Payne’s presentation offers the results of research he has conducted on the exit narratives of so-called Mormon apostates. It …