Mark your calendar!

The  first  annual  EXPOUND symposium will be held on Saturday, 14 May 2011 at the historic Brigham Young Academy building in Provo, Utah (only three blocks from the south edge of Brigham Young University). Come join us for engaging and insightful presentations related to the rich heritage of LDS history, scripture and belief. Drawings will be held for publications from some of the speakers.

Presenters and Presentations

Kurt Graham
The Future of the Church History Museum

Ugo A. Perego
Is Decrypting the Genetic Legacy of America’s Indigenous Populations Key to the Historicity of the Book of Mormon?

David J. Larsen
The Psalms as a Key to Understanding the Rituals of the First Temple

Jeffrey M. Bradshaw
“Standing in the Holy Place”: Ancient and Modern Reverberations of an Enigmatic New Testament Prophecy

Mark Alan Wright
Nephite Daykeepers: Ritual Specialists in the Book of Mormon

David M. Calabro
Body Symbolism in Latter-day Saint Scripture

Larry E. Morris
“Such a Godless Place Would be Difficult to Imagine”: The Historical Setting for the Arrival of the First Mormon Missionaries in Missouri

Matthew B. Brown
Cube, Gate and Measuring Tools: A Biblical Pattern

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I really need to update my paper title and abstract, as my presentation will more nuanced than what the information on the site indicates.  That title and abstract was given months ago before I actually wrote the paper — but that’s my fault for not sending them an update.  I’ll try to do that soon.

I am really excited about this conference.  The organizers are great guys and I am very interested in hearing all the other presentations, which cover quite a wide variety of topics!

The symposium goes from 9am to 5:30pm. That may sound like a long day, but I encourage you to stay for the whole thing (especially because I’m not speaking until 3pm)! Seriously, I don’t think you’ll want to miss any of these speakers. If you can make it, I look forward to seeing you there!!

• BYU Bookstore, December 18, 12:00-1:30 PM
• Eborn Bookstore (South Towne Center) December 19, 4-5:30 PM
• Eborn Bookstore (Valley Fair Mall), December 19, 6:00-8:00 PM
• Eborn Bookstore (Provo Towne Center) December 22, 10-11:30 AM

I have, however, greatly enjoyed spending some quality time with my family here in Utah. Driving from Wisconsin through the great plains and up into the heights of the Rocky Mountains, it has been great to once again “ascend” to this land of Zion, where the “mountain of the Lord’s house” has been established on the top of the mountains (Isaiah 2).

In the short amount of time that I’ve been here, I’ve been able to see five LDS temples, all within less than an hour’s drive from where I am staying.  I am posting a few pictures that we have taken so far (these are all around Temple Square in Salt Lake City — I will post more later).

The Salt Lake City, Utah Temple — photo taken from across the street to the North-West

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From a bit further away

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The Conference Center — a veritable mountain in its own right

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To obtain a vision of the deity was a main purpose, I believe, of ancient temples

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Witnessing the ascension par excellence

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Other Items of Interest

There are a couple of blogs that I want to point out that I think are worth looking at.

danielomcclellan.wordpress.com — Daniel McClellan is a recent graduate of BYU in Ancient Near Eastern Studies (with concentration on Hebrew with a minor in Greek) and is now headed to Oxford University to do a Master’s in Jewish Studies. Daniel ran the Students of the Ancient Near East (SANE) organization at BYU and will certainly be a great scholar (he already is).  He used to have a blog called “Maklelan” but has now moved to this new address.  We look for great things to come from Daniel McClellan!

visionsofthekingdom.shynaar.net — David Tayman has recently started a blog focused on scriptural symbolism. So far his posts have provided an analysis of the days of creation as presented in Genesis with comparisons to Mesopotamian and other creation accounts. He has also created some great diagrams to illustrate the ancient Israelite understanding of the cosmos, which are very helpful indeed. They are so well done that they have been used by Daniel Peterson in a couple of his presentations. I am not familiar with David’s background, but he likes reading Margaret Barker and seems to know a lot about the Old Testament, so I’m happy to recommend his blog to you.

On another note:

A 3700 year-old wall has been discovered in Jerusalem, inside the City of David. It is the largest and most ancient of its kind ever found in the region. It seems to have been part of a huge fortification built to protect a nearby spring. “This is the most massive wall that has ever been uncovered in the City of David” — to read more, see the CNN.com story here.