The following are my notes from the recent Temple Studies Symposium, held July 2, 2011 at the Temple Church, London. As always, the event was a great success with many important insights imparted. It was a pleasure to see my friends and colleagues there, including Margaret Barker, Revd Robin Griffith-Jones, Jeffrey Bradshaw, William Hamblin, John Welch, Richard Wellington, and others. I was also very happy to make the acquaintance of Ezekiel scholar Paul Joyce of Oxford University.
My notes, unfortunately, are not complete. I missed Margaret Barker’s presentation as Jeffrey Bradshaw and I battled the London Underground system and lost. I also missed Dr. David Sheppard’s presentation on “Temple and Messiah in the Targum of Isaiah,” which I’m sure was wonderful and hope that he posts it online. Any of the talks that are posted should appear at this site: http://www.templestudiesgroup.com/Symposia.htm.
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On May 17, 2011 (the day after I left Provo for my recent visit), Professor John W. Welch, Robert K. Thomas Professor of Law and editor-in-chief of BYU Studies, gave the 2011 Karl G. Maeser Distinguished Faculty Lecture at a Brigham Young University forum after having been awarded the 2011 Maeser Distinguished Faculty Lecturer Award, the university’s highest faculty honor. Jack Welch is one of the most recognizable and admired LDS scholars of our day, a prime example of a believing disciple-scholar, and I really wanted to hear what he had to say on this memorable occasion. Fortunately, I have since had the opportunity to see and read his comments and would like to share with you some of his inspiring remarks.
I’m Still Here!!
You may have been wondering as I have not posted anything here for about two months!! I apologize to anyone who is actually still interested in reading this blog! Over the Summer I was compelled by my financial situation here in Scotland to get a full-time summer job, so between that and my research, I have had very little time for anything else.
Now the new Fall semester has started up again here at St Andrew, I have set aside the summer job and gone back to the school-year routine (what a relief). This semester, I’m tutoring (basically acting as a Teaching Assistant) for the freshman Old Testament course, with Dr. William Tooman as lecturer. I am also sitting in on a class by N. Tom Wright on Paul and the Epistle to the Philippians. Also, I am starting up an LDS Institute of Religion class here in St Andrews (there hasn’t been one here), and we will be studying the Book of Mormon course.
I don’t have much else to say at the moment. I probably still won’t be posting too frequently; as you can see from the above, I will still be very busy for the foreseeable future. I did want to alert you, if you haven’t seen these already, to some cool things that I’ve seen and read over the past little while.
Professor Jim Davila (my dissertation supervisor) on his More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Project: http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2011_09_25_archive.html#4299376576250797913 (unfortunately, the links to download his interview don’t seem to be working at the moment — UPDATE: try this link http://vaca.bayradio.com/kgo_archives/?d=0 and listen to the 7-8:00 am hour)
Jim Davila on the “lost books” that are mentioned in the biblical texts: http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2011_06_12_archive.html
The Holy Temple Conferences recently held in Jerusalem, focusing on building awareness of Jewish desires to build a temple on the Temple Mount: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/148029#.ToHJJezwvzP
Modern Reenactment of the Psalms of Ascents ritual on the Southern Steps of the Temple in Jerusalem: http://www.jpost.com/Travel/Jerusalem/Article.aspx?id=238580
Google makes the Dead Sea Scrolls available online: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/from-desert-to-web-bringing-dead-sea.html?spref=tw
LDS Media Talk tells you how to build links to your website: http://ldsmediatalk.com/2007/12/22/how-to-build-links-to-your-web-site/
Finally, and on a somber note, I would like to request that you offer some prayers on behalf of my friend and colleague, Matthew B. Brown, author of many excellent LDS-themed titles, including Symbols in Stone, The Gate of Heaven, All Things Restored, and many others. Matthew has recently had a medical emergency and would benefit from your prayers on his behalf at this time. He is a great asset to the LDS community and we pray for his speedy and full recovery.