October 9-10, 2020
Online Meeting
Friday (October 9)
Plenary Session: Book Reviews (9:00 am – 10:30 am)
Grant Shreve, reviewing William Davis, Visions in a Seer Stone
Joseph M. Spencer, reviewing Don Bradley, The Lost 116 Pages
Carter Charles, reviewing Fatimah Salleh and Margaret Olsen Hemming, The Book of Mormon for the Least of These
Concurrent Sessions, 10:45 am – 12:15 pm
Room 1
Robin Jensen (Joseph Smith Papers), “A Preliminary Examination into the Authenticity of the University of Chicago Leaves of the Original Book of Mormon Manuscript (Alma 3:5-4:2; 4:20-5:23)”
Janiece Johnson (Neal A. Maxwell Institute) – “Scripturalizing the Book: Book of Mormon Authority and the Material Record”
Room 2
Thomas Wayment (Brigham Young University) – “Intertextuality and the Construction of Narrative in the Book of Mormon”
Christopher Jones (Brigham Young University) – “‘A Necessary Book for Dark-Skinned People’: Reading the Book of Mormon with the First Missionaries to the Pacific”
Concurrent Sessions, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Room 1
Rosalynde Welch (Independent Scholar) – “Approaching Lehi’s Dream of the Tree”
Steven Peck (Brigham Young University) – “The Sword of Laban, Deleuze, and Climate Change: Slouching toward Apocalypse in the Book of Mormon”
Room 2
Jenny Webb (Bangor University) – “The Charismatic Matrix of the Book of Mormon”
Tyler Chadwick (Utah Valley University) – “The Word/Seed is Good: Doing Rhetorical Theology with Alma”
Concurrent Sessions, 3:45 pm – 5:15 pm
Room 1
Christopher Blythe (Neal A. Maxwell Institute) – “The Three Nephites and Latter-day Saint Schism”
Nicholas Frederick (Brigham Young University) – “Nephite Jeremiad or Lamanite Encomium? Helaman 15 and Lamanite Exceptionalism”
Room 2
Brant Gardner (Independent Scholar) – “Spontaneity of Content in the Transmission of the Book of Mormon Text to Scribes”
Doug Christensen (University of Utah) – “Literacy as a Means to Salvation in the Book of Mormon”
Keynote Speaker, 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm
John Durham Peters (Yale University) – “Moby Dick and the Book of Mormon”
Saturday (October 10)
Concurrent Sessions, 9:00 am – 10:30 am
Room 1
Kimberly Matheson Berkey (Loyola University) – “Life or Knowledge? Lehi’s Vision of a Tree”
Grant Shreve (Independent Scholar) – “Just in Time: Temporalities of Writing in The Book of Mormon”
Room 2
Aaron Coombs (University of Utah) – “Theological Foundations and the Problem of Pluralism in Nephite Society”
Sharon Harris (Brigham Young University) – “Saving the House of Israel: The Book of Mormon Covenant and Collective Atonement”
Plenary Session: Roundtable and Discussion, 10:45 am – 11:45 am
Spencer Fluhman (Maxwell Institute), roundtable discussion on Brief Theological Introductions to the Book of Mormon
Concurrent Sessions, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Room 1
Frederik Kleiner (Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel) – “The Book of Mormon as Post-Secular Revelation: God as Implied Author Deified”
Charles Swift (Brigham Young University) – “Cursed No More: The Lamanites as ‘Remnant of Jacob’”
Room 2
Noel Reynolds (Brigham Young University) – “The Goodness of God and His Children as a Fundamental Theological Concept in the Book of Mormon”
Julie Frederick (Independent Scholar) – “Fear and Trembling and The Book of Mormon: Concepts of Faith”
Concurrent Sessions, 3:45 pm – 5:15 pm
Room 1
Charles Harrell (Brigham Young University) – “When Ordinances are not Ordinances: Recovering Lost Meanings through Book of Mormon Word Studies”
John Christopher Thomas (Pentecostal Theological Seminary, Bangor University) – “Implied Readers, the Bible, and the Book of Mormon: Soundings from 2 Nephi”
Room 2
Daniel Becerra (Brigham Young University) – “Moral Psychology and the Heart in the Book of Mormon”
Becky Roesler (Brigham Young University – Idaho) – “‘And There Was Power Given unto Them that They Did Turn and Look’: Relationships among Agency, Attention, and Grace”
Keynote Speaker, 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Nancy Bentley (University of Pennsylvania) – “Modern Scripture and the Trope of the Found Manuscript”
