This session discusses the forthcoming volume Persistence of Polygamy: A Mormon Anthology edited by Newell G. Bringhurst and Craig L. Foster. The book’s 20 essays explore various aspects of Mormon polygamy from its beginnings in the nineteenth century to today. Contributing authors will present summaries of their respective chapters and take questions from the audience. …
Event: Salt Lake Symposium 2010
SL10326: Joseph Smith’s Meditation on Power— Clear Evidence of a Maturing Faith
Brigham Young said “Joseph Smith was a poet, and poets are not like other men…. they catch the swift thought of God and reveal it to us.” Joseph’s place as a nineteenth-century writer is just beginning to be appreciated. This session will look at one aspect of one of the dictations in which he generates …
SL10364: Oliver Cowdery’s Rod of Nature
Masonic, magic, and religious lore regarding the rod of Aaron simmered in the burned-over district during the Second Great Awakening. Oliver Cowdery had already received revelations through a rod before meeting Joseph Smith, who revealed that Oliver would translate ancient texts just as Joseph had with seer stones. When the Joseph Smith Papers Project published …
SL10122: Authors meet the Critic
This discussion brings together scholars and thinkers to discuss two books: Gary Topping’s Leonard J. Arrington: A Historian’s Life and Polly Aird’s book about Peter McAuslan entitled Mormon Convert, Mormon Defector: A Scottish Immigrant in the American West, 1848-1861. Through the publication of his groundbreaking Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints …
SL10163: Maturity, Meaning, and Mormonism
In adulthood, our priorities shift from “making our way in the world” to “making sense of our mortal journey.” To aid our efforts to understand the meaning of life, Carl Jung suggests that as we mature, we should focus on becoming more conscious, more creative, and more receptive. This presentation examines the principles and doctrines …
SL10223: Spaceship Earth
Shortly before our 40th wedding anniversary, I realized that Valerie had been cleaning our toilets for 40 years—and that I had let her. I felt that I should not have, and I resolved to do it from then on. From that realization sprang the observation at the heart of this talk: one of the marks …
SL10274: Exit, Voice, and Loyalty in the Mormon Community
The work of political economist Albert Hirschman suggests a nuanced approach to public dissatisfaction with an organization. Dissatisfied members of an organization, business, or nation have a variety of choices available, including both exit (simply leaving) and voice (discussing their dissatisfaction). As Hirschman notes, greater loyalty to the organization can correspond to greater use of …
SL10331: Panel: Glenn Beck: Likely Mormon or Unlikely Mormon?
Glenn Beck is presently the most famous—and possibly the most infamous—Mormon in America. He is better known than President Monson or Steve Young and is more popular than Harry Reid or Mitt Romney. Some see Beck as a populist prophet of the coming apocalypse while others consider him the most dangerous man in America. This …
SL10365: Reasons for Technological Interpretations of Mormonism
When it comes to technology and spirituality, who decided that hope, faith, and heaven must be supernatural? How were so many of us persuaded that we can experience the spiritual but not measure it, or that we can promote such experience but not manage it with greater precision? When did we convince ourselves that machines …
SL10124: More Stories from the LDS Borderlands
I will give a short presentation about a few not-yet-published Borderlanders’ stories and discuss issues associated with life in the LDS Borderlands today. As in past Borderland sessions, after the main presentation, we invite audience members to ask questions of the presenters and, for those so inclined, to share stories of how you (and/or a …