May 11-12, 2012 – Samuel Morris Brown

 Posted by at 7:45 pm
Mar 272012
 

IN HEAVEN AS IT IS ON EARTH

Joseph Smith’s Translation of American Freemasonry

DATES: May 11 (Villa Park) and May 12 (La Canada – Flintridge).

TIME: 7:30 p.m.

We are excited to announce that our May 2012 Miller Eccles speaker will be Samuel Morris Brown, author of the recently-published and critically-acclaimed book, In Heaven as It Is On Earth: Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death (Oxford University Press, 2012).

THE TOPIC:

Joseph Smith spent most of his religious career, indeed most of his conscious life, battling the specter of death. To that end he engaged and revised a variety of philosophies, what he and his followers understood to be fragments of ancient truths. Samuel Brown describes in his book, In Heaven as It Is on Earth, the ways that Joseph Smith and his followers brought those ancient philosophies into dialogue with early American beliefs in the founding of Mormonism.

Amidst the illness and death that haunted the founding of Nauvoo on a malarious bend in the Mississippi River, Joseph Smith brought Freemasonry into service of the conquest of death. Though his engagement of Masonry has led to much controversy, both apologists and critics have missed how profoundly Smith’s encounter with Freemasonry emphasized death and its conquest. In this presentation Dr. Brown will clarify this relationship, demonstrating that Smith “translated” Freemasonry, much as he had the King James Bible or Egyptian funerary papyri, finding in it fragments of ancient religion, eternal truths, and connections to the ancient past. As Smith translated Freemasonry, he made clear just how important relationships—among the living, and between the living and the dead—were to his faith.

THE SPEAKER:

Samuel Morris Brown graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College in Linguistics with a minor in Russian, then received his MD from Harvard Medical School, where he was a National Scholar and Massachusetts Medical Society Scholar. After graduation he completed residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he remained on faculty as an Instructor in General Medicine at Harvard Medical School before moving to the University of Utah. He is now Assistant Professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and Associate in the Division of Medical Ethics and Humanities at the University of Utah, based at the Shock Trauma ICU at Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City. He investigates hidden rhythms in heart function during life-threatening infection.

In his “free time,” Sam studies cultural history, with a particular emphasis on how religious ideas assist believers in coming to terms with embodiment, sickness, and death. He has published widely in both fields. His book, In Heaven as It Is on Earth: Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death, fundamentally reinterprets earliest Mormonism in terms of the age-old struggle to conquer death.

Posted by Morris Thurston

 

 

June 22-23, 2012 – Matthew Bowman

 Posted by at 7:52 pm
Mar 262012
 

MORMONISM AND AMERICAN PROGRESSIVISM

DATES: June 22 (Villa Park) and June 23 (La Canada – Flintridge).

TIME: 7:30 p.m.

We are pleased to announce that our June 2012 Miller Eccles speaker will be Dr. Matthew Bowman, author of the exciting new book titled The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith, published by Random House.

THE TOPIC:

How did Mormons enter the twentieth century? How did the frontier church of Brigham Young become the polished, all-American faith of contemporary America?

Dr. Bowman’s presentation will explore the transformation of Mormonism in the early twentieth century, arguing that Mormons found a place for themselves in American life by incorporating the ideals of the classic American progressive movement: optimism about humanity’s future, confidence in human potential, and faith in the power of organization to accomplish the fullest possibilities of what human society might become.

THE SPEAKER:

Matthew Bowman is Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, one of the oldest colleges in America. He is also Associate Editor of Dialogue, A Journal of Mormon Thought.

Last year Random House, a mainstream American publisher, approached Richard Bushman to inquire if he would write a book about the Mormon people, capitalizing on the national interest in the Church in this “Mormon Moment.” Richard recommended Matt. The catch was that the book needed to be written in three months, a seemingly impossible time frame for such a work. Matt was equal to the task, however, and the book he produced is a triumph. Reviewers have called it “a smart, lucid history of the faith” (Tom Brokaw), “a quick, lively, and informative trip into the heart of Mormonism” (Richard Bushman) and “a cogent, judicious, and important account of a faith that has been an important element in American history but remained surprisingly misunderstood” (Michael Beschloss).

Since publishing his book, Matt has been featured in numerous national media, including Slate, The Christian Science Monitor, The Huffington Post and MSNBC’s Morning Joe. He received a Ph.D. in American religious history from Georgetown University and a Master’s in American history from the University of Utah.

Posted by Morris Thurston

 

 

September 14-15, 2012 – David E. Campbell

 Posted by at 4:42 pm
Mar 252012
 

A PECULIAR PEOPLE?

Mormons’ Niche in the Political Ecosphere

DATES: September 14 (Villa Park) and September 15 (La Canada – Flintridge).

TIME: 7:30 p.m.

We are pleased to announce that our September 2012 Miller Eccles speaker will be Dr. David E. Campbell, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame and founding director of the Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy. Dr. Campbell is the co-author (with Robert Putnam) of American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, which has been described by the New York Times as “intellectually powerful,” by America as “an instant classic.”

THE TOPIC:

Mormons are politically distinctive, but not always in the way their public image suggests. Using new data collected from a national sample of Mormons, Dr. Campbell will highlight the “peculiarities” of Mormons’ political views. While generally conserv- ative, Mormons do not march in lockstep with other right-leaning religious groups—their attitudes on immigration, abortion, and even gay marriage are far more moderate than conventional wisdom would suggest.

Mormons’ distinctiveness also extends to their extraordinarily high levels of social capital. No religious group engages in more volunteering—both inside and outside the faith—than Mormons. But this peculiarity comes at a price, as Mormons are viewed with suspicion by many other Americans. While Mitt Romney bears the brunt of this suspicion, it extends to rank-and-file Mormons too.

For Mormons who wish to see their faith overcome this suspicion, the good news is that the data, and the past experience of other “exotic” religions, suggest it can be done by building bridges to those of other faiths. The bad news is that Mormons do not often build such bridges.

THE SPEAKER:

David E. Campbell is the John Cardinal O’Hara, C.S.C. Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame and the founding director of the Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy. As noted above, is co-author of American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us. This book received both the 2011 Woodrow Wilson Award from the American Political Science Association for the best book on government, politics, or international affairs and the Wilbur Award from the Religious Communicators Council for the best non-fiction book of 2010.

Prof. Campbell is also the author of Why We Vote: How Schools and Communities Shape Our Civic Life and the editor of A Matter of Faith: Religion in the 2004 Presidential Election. As an expert on religion, politics, and civic engagement, he has often been featured in the national media, including the New York Times, Economist, USA Today, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Time, NBC News, CNN, NPR, Fox News, and C-SPAN.

Born and raised in the bustling metropolis of Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada, David currently lives in Granger, Indiana. He and his wife Kirsten have two children, Katie and Soren. A graduate of Brigham Young University, he served an LDS mission in Illinois (Peoria), and is currently a gospel doctrine teacher in the South Bend Ward.

Posted by Morris Thurston

 

 

Photos – 4/20/2012 Janice Perry O.C. Presentaton

 Posted by at 8:18 am
Mar 252012
 

We had a great presentation from Janice Kapp Perry on April 20-21, 2012. It was fascinating to learn about how she began writing and publishing songs somewhat late in life, about her love of softball (she was an outstanding pitcher), and about the struggles of LDS musical artists to succeed financially in the digital age, particularly in the wake of consolidation in the LDS marketplace. Click on the “Continue reading” link for some photos from the Orange County session.

Continue reading »

April 20-21, 2012 – Janice Kapp Perry

 Posted by at 10:18 am
Mar 242012
 

THE STORY BEHIND THE SONGS

DATES: April 20 (Villa Park) and April 21 (La Canada – Flintridge).

TIME: 7:30 p.m.

We are excited to announce that our April 2012 Miller Eccles speaker will be Janice Kapp Perry, one of the most famous and prolific Mormon composers of our day.

THE TOPIC:

If you are a regular attender of Mormon religious services you’re familiar with music written by Janice Kapp Perry. She composed the hymn “As Sisters in Zion” for the LDS hymnbook and has ten songs in the Primary songbook. But that is just the beginning. She has produced more than fifty albums of original music, numerous sacred cantatas, and several full-length musicals. Her pieces are often performed as solos or duets at LDS sacrament meetings and elsewhere.

But what is the story behind the music? In our Miller Eccles session, Janice will discuss how she began to write church music, what challenges she faced (officially and otherwise), her composition process, and some of the fascinating interactions she has had with Church and political leaders in connection with her music.

In addition, we will be privileged to hear performances of a few of Janice’s favorite pieces — a treat not to be missed.

THE SPEAKER:

Janice Kapp Perry was born in Ogden, raised in Vale, Oregon, and now makes her home in Provo. She received her musical training at Brigham Young University and has been composing gospel music for 35 years. Her pieces have been performed by a wide variety of well-known artists as well as countless choirs, soloists and small groups. She has created an enormous library of gospel music that appeals to all age categories.

In the late 1970s, Janice got her “two lucky breaks,” as she calls them, when she broke her ankle playing basketball and the family TV broke. While recuperating from her injuries, and having nothing to occupy her, Janice’s bishop asked her to write original music for the ward roadshow. This was the beginning of a fabled musical composition career.

Janice was a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for a number of years. She and her husband, Douglas, served as senior missionaries in the Chile Santiago West mission from 2002 to 2004. She received the Ricks College Exemplary Woman Award in 1994, and the BYU Alumni Distinguished Service Award in 1997. It will be a great treat to hear her talk about the story behind the songs.

Posted by Morris Thurston

 

 

Photos — 3/23/2012 Laurel Ulrich O.C. Presentation

 Posted by at 9:03 am
Mar 242012
 

In the course of our March 23, 2012 meeting with Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, I took a few random photos of some of the attendees. So did Rob Briggs. Click on the “Continue reading” link to see some of the best.

Continue reading »

March 23-24, 2012 – Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

 Posted by at 9:24 am
Mar 232012
 

A HOUSE FULL OF FEMALES

Family and Faith in Nineteenth-century Mormon Diaries

DATES: March 23 (Villa Park) and March 24 (La Canada – Flintridge).

TIME: 7:30 p.m.

We are excited to announce that our March 2012 Miller Eccles speaker will be Harvard Professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. You won’t want to miss this once-in a lifetime opportunity to hear one of Mormonism’s most respected scholar-historians.

THE TOPIC:

Today, polygamy is the one practice everyone associates with Mormonism. For the official Church, “plural marriage” is an obsolete practice best forgotten. For non-Mormons, it is alternately a source of amusement (as in the television show “Big Love”) or horror (as in press accounts of the raid on a Texas compound.) Few people understand plural marriage as part of a larger concept of family that eventually evolved into the passion for genealogy that is the other thing many Americans associate with Mormonism today.

The nineteenth-century Mormon concept of the family extended outward to infinity, yet was grounded in older European and American ideals and in almost tribal notions of kinship. Presiding over a vast progeny of literal and fictive kin, a Mormon patriarch could become a king and a priest. In sacred ceremonies, women came to believe that they too were endowed with priestly power. Some of them learned to use it in unexpected ways by building cooperative stores, hospitals, educational institutions, and “retrenchment societies,” and publishing a path breaking newspaper devoted to “The Rights of the Women of Zion, and the Rights of the Women of all Nations.” Grounding the rise of Mormon feminism in a longer narrative about Latter-day Saint family life allows us to see what polygamy—and the crusade against it—offered Mormon women.  But the converse is also true. Looking at contemporary Mormonism in the light of plural marriage helps us see ourselves in new ways.

THE SPEAKER:

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich is 300th Anniversary University Professor at Harvard University and past president of the American Historical Association. She is the author of many articles and books on early American history, including A Midwife’s Tale, which won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1991. During her tenure as a MacArthur Fellow, she worked on the production of a PBS documentary based on A Midwife’s Tale. Her more recent work includes Well-behaved Women Seldom Make History (Knopf 2007) and “Tangible Things,” a 2011 exhibit of artworks and artifacts from Harvard’s many collections that she co-curated with Ivan Gaskell.  A fifth-generation Latter-day Saint, she has published personal essays in Dialogue, Exponent II, The Ensign, Weber Studies, The Journal of Mormon History, and in an anthology co-authored with Emma Lou Thayne, All God’s Critters Got A Place In The Choir. She is currently working on a book about nineteenth-century Mormon diaries.  She and her husband, Gael Ulrich, are members of Cambridge I Ward in Massachusetts.

Posted by Morris Thurston

 

 

February 24-25, 2012 – Tammi J. Schneider

 Posted by at 2:41 pm
Feb 022012
 

WOMEN IN THE BOOK OF GENESIS

The Past Present and Future of Biblical Scholarship

DATES: February 24 (Villa Park) and February 25 (La Canada – Flintridge).

TIME: 7:30 p.m.

We are pleased to announce that our February 2012 Miller Eccles speaker will be Professor Tammi J. Schneider, Dean of the School of Religion at Claremont Graduate University. Dr. Schneider will speak to the topic of “Women in the Book of Genesis: The Past, Present and Future of Biblical Scholarship.”

Left: Abraham expels Hagar and Ishmael – Jan Victors (early 17th century)

THE TOPIC:

The book of Genesis is well-known, both because it is the first book and also because it includes so many stories that capture the hearts and minds of its readers. Women play a prominent role in many of these stories, but sometimes we forget that. In her presentation, Respected Hebrew scholar and archaeologist Tammi Schneider will review the various women of Genesis and discuss how they play similar roles in moving the storyline forward. Professor Schneider’s careful and creative approach will challenge traditional ways of seeing these women and give us a fresh perspective on familiar stories.

About Professor Schneider’s approach to this subject, one respected commentator has said: “You might be tempted to think that over the past couple of decades everything that could be said about the women in Genesis has been said. Tammi Schneider shows that this is not so, bringing a whole new set of questions and making it possible for us to see some quite new things.” — John Goldingay, Fuller Theological Seminary

THE SPEAKER:

Tammi J. Schneider is a Professor of Religion and Dean of the School of Religion at Claremont Graduate University, specializing in the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East.  She received her doctorate in Ancient History from the University of Pennsylvania. Her books include;  Judges in the Berit Olam series published by Liturgical Press, Sarah: Mother of Nations published by The Continuum International Publishing Group, Mothers of Promise: Women in the Book of Genesis by Baker Academic Press and her new book An Introduction to Ancient Mesopotamian Religion by Eerdmans Publishing Company. She has participated in many excavations in Israel and is presently the director of the educational program at the excavation of Tel Akko in Israel. She was the Vice President of the American Schools of Oriental Research from which she received their Service Award. She is the editor for the ancient Near East section of the journal Religious Studies Review and of the Series editor for the Society of Biblical Literature series entitled Archaeology and Biblical Studies.

Posted by Morris Thurston

 

 

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