I got back from the Society of Biblical Literature conference in Boston late Wednesday night. It was a great experience! I drove there and back (about a day long journey) with my whole family and we had the good fortune of being able to stay with our good friends Dan and Bunny French who we know from when we used to live in Massachussetts. It was nice to be back and to see old friends. We went to church at the old ward that we used to attend (we actually went to both the Bridgewater and Hingham wards) and visited with many people we once knew well. It was a great opportunity.
As for the conference, I attended sessions on Friday, Saturday, and Monday. On Sunday I went to a great fireside at David Bokovoy’s ward in Cambridge. The speakers were Dr. Bill Hamblin and Dr. Dan Peterson. Dr. Peterson spoke on the relationship of Islam to Mormonism and Dr. Hamblin did a presentation on the continuation of the traditions and imagery of Solomon’s Temple over time. Both were wonderful and enlightening presentations.
I took many notes on the fireside and all the great sessions I attended, and I plan to post those within a week or so. I also want to post my thoughts on the organization of a new study group at SBL on the temple, started by BYU professors Bill Hamblin and David Seely. I am at the end of my semester here at Marquette and I am trying to finish up the last two of three papers that I have due this week. So please forgive me for the delay in posting.
In the end, this trip to the SBL conference was definitely worth it. I learned a lot and had the opportunity to meet many people. A partial list of some of the great people I met (or re-met in some cases):
- Dr. Bill Hamblin
- Dr. Dan Peterson and his wife
- Dr. David Seely and his wife
- Dr. Frank Judd
- Dr. John Welch
- Lynne Wilson–former LDS PhD student at Marquette
- Matt Grey–LDS PhD student at UNC Chapel Hill
- David Bokovoy–LDS PhD student at Brandeis
- Rev. Robin Griffith-Jones–Master of the Temple, The Temple Church
- Dr. Jim Davila
- Dr. John Gee
- Dr. Silviu Bunta
- Ben Spackman
- Dave Nielsen–BYU undergrad who presented at SBL
I also saw (but didn’t officially meet) George Nickelsburg, John J. Collins, April DeConick, and many others.
While that was very exciting for me, I hope what will be exciting for you are some of the notes I took while I was there. These notes will be forthcoming…
2 Comments
Sounds fun!
Bokovoy is at Brandeis.
Yes, you’re right! Brandeis, not Harvard! Thanks for pointing that out. I’ll make the correction.