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Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

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Joseph Smith, Responses To Early Missionaries Topics In Byu Studies

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Following closely on the heels of a recent double-sized issue on Mormons and film, the latest issue of BYU Studies contains a landmark study by historian Max H Parkin entitled “Joseph Smith and the United Firm: The Growth and Decline of the Church’s First Master Plan of Business and Finance, Ohio and Missouri, 1832–1834.” Never before have the historical documents been so thoroughly and masterfully marshaled to give readers a heightened appreciation for the importance of the “United Firm” in the early Church. Along with all else that Joseph Smith was revealing and directing during these years, the consecrated legacy …

Journey Of Faith: The New World Screened In Hawaii

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

On November 9, 2007, the new Willes Center-sponsored DVD, Journey of Faith: The New World, was shown to a large audience in the IMAX Theater of the Polynesian Cultural Center in Laie, Hawaii, adjacent to the campus of BYU–Hawaii. The screening was offered in connection with a three-day international business conference cosponsored by the University. The founder of the Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies, Mark H. Willes, opened the screening by explaining how the film came about, its significance as a study aid to help all better understand the cultural and geo-graphical setting of events leading …

Byu And Oxford Brookes University Collaborate On Transcription Of Syriac Texts

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Following the success of the BYU Dead Seas Scrolls Electronic Library (2nd ed., Brill, 2006), the Maxwell Institute’s Center for the Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts (CPART) has initiated a project to produce an electronic library of ancient Syriac literature. Syriac is a dialect of Aramaic, the language of Jesus and his disciples. Syriac was the language spoken by ancient Christians throughout the Middle East, from Syria to India, and a large and important body of early Christian literature is preserved in it. Electronic libraries have been produced for Greek, Latin and other ancient literatures, but this will be the …

Dss Library Wins Ala Choice Award

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Each year in January, Choice magazine recognizes a short list of the best academic titles from among the 7,000 or so reviewed in the previous year. Among the winners of the January 2008 awards is BYU’s Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Library, which was produced by the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship and published by Brill Academic Press. This electronic database contains searchable texts of all of the published non-biblical scrolls. High resolution images of the scrolls and a complete English translation accompany the texts. The latest version of the database, published at the end of 2006, is the …

Scripture Update: El Niño And Lehi’S Voyage Revisited, Warren P. Aston

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

In recent years several scholars have drawn the attention of Latter-day Saints to the phenomenon popularly known as “El Niño.”1 In 1990 David L. Clark highlighted the fact that a mechanism was now known to science that would permit, periodically, easterly sea travel across the Pacific, the direction Lehi’s party is understood to have traveled.2 ENSO, the more formal acronym for this phenomenon, comes from El Niño (the Christ child) and Southern Oscillation, referring to the fact that the changes commence in the southern Pacific Ocean. The intermittent ENSO effect creates an easterly equatorial current running counter to the prevailing …

Documentary Exploring The Life Of Jesus Christ Planned

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

With the full backing of the BYU administration, the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship—in partnership with Religious Education, BYU Broadcasting and the department of Theatre and Media Arts—is laying plans to begin filming a seven-part documentary series on the ministry and life of Jesus Christ, beginning with his role as premortal Deity, continuing through his mortality, and ending with his role as judge of all. The series is provisionally titled Messiah: Behold the Lamb of God. The project envisions a high definition series that presents the views of Brigham Young University scholars. Each of the twenty-six minute episodes …

Occasional Papers Spotlights The Book Of Mormon

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

The latest issue of the Maxwell Institute’s Occasional Papers (number 5 in the series) focuses exclusively on what Joseph Smith called “the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion”—the Book of Mormon. As M. Gerald Bradford, editor of the series and associate executive director of the Maxwell Institute notes, “the papers in this volume show that the Book of Mormon can be studied and understood from a wide variety of scholarly disciplines.”

Full Issue

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

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Featured Publications

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

The Encyclopedia of Mormonism, published in 1992, is now available online at www.lib.byu.edu/spc/Macmillan/, or search Google for Encyclopedia of Mormonism. This valuable resource answers many questions about Church doctrine and history and is useful in any teaching situation. BYU Studies will be assisting the Harold B. Lee Library to add links and update content in coming months.

Research At The Shrine Of The Book Continues

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Irene Lewitt, assistant director of the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem, visited Brigham Young University on June 20, 2007. Donald W. Parry, professor of Hebrew Bible studies, and Steven Booras from the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, hosted Ms. Lewitt during her visit. A portion of her tour included a demonstration of multispectral imaging. A luncheon sponsored by the Maxwell Institute was also held in her honor. The Shrine of the Book is a museum that houses many of the Dead Sea Scrolls, including the Great Isaiah Scroll and the Temple Scroll, and other significant archaeological findings. …

Worth Repeating: “The Book Of Mormon As A Mesoamerican Record”, John L. Sorenson

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

The Nephite account is a record that resembles in form, nature, and functions—in scores of characteristics, in fact—what we would expect in an ancient Mesoamerican codex, a type of document that was utterly unknown to Joseph Smith.

Syriac Studies Reference Library Now Completed, Carl Griffin

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

On June 20, 2001, representatives of BYU’s Maxwell Institute, The Catholic University of America (CUA), and Beth Mardutho, a Syriac studies institute, met together to discuss the digital imaging of key holdings in the Semitics/ICOR Library of CUA’s Mullen Library. CUA’s Semitics/ICOR Library houses one of the largest collections in the world of early and rare books on the Christian East. All parties shared a particular interest in early Syriac printed works, both for their continuing value to contemporary Syriac Christian communities as well as to Syriac scholars. Many early printed catalogs, text editions, grammars, lexica, and other instrumenta and …

Maxwell Institute Well Represented At Fair Conference

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Four scholars from the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship spoke at the FAIR conference held in Sandy, Utah, in August. FAIR, the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of Latter-day Saint doctrine, belief, and practice.

The Prophet Like Moses, John A. Tvedtnes, E. Jan Wilson

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

One of the most frequently quoted Old Testament passages in scripture is Moses’s prophecy as re corded in Deuteronomy 18:15–19:

The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; According to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not. And the Lord said unto me, They have …

Peterson Awarded For Scholastic Excellence

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

The Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters held its annual awards banquet on Friday, October 12, at Weber State University. The academy awarded Daniel C. Peterson, professor of Islamic Studies and Arabic at Brigham Young University and director of the Maxwell Institute’s Middle Eastern Texts Initiative (METI), the highest award of the evening, naming him a Utah Academy Fellow and lifetime member of the organization.

New Documentary Focuses On New World

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Journey of Faith: The New World premiered to large audiences at BYU Education Week in a sneak preview. S. Kent Brown, director of the newly formed Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies and one of the lead historical consultants on the documentary, and Peter N. Johnson, director, hosted the premier. A number of people returned for a second viewing because of the sweep of information in the film. “Packing a long history into 80 or 90 minutes of film presented a huge challenge to the filmmakers,” Johnson said. The new film enjoys the sponsorship of the Neal …

Full Issue

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

No abstract provided.

International Librarians Visit Byu, Maxwell Institute

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

On June 18, 2007, a group of six librarians from various international institutions visited the Maxwell Institute’s Center for the Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts (CPART) to learn more about the digital preservation of ancient texts at BYU. This visit was sponsored by the U.S. Department of State to further the professional development of these specialists. Visitors included Ioana Damian of the IAŞI (Romania), Billy Leung Tak Hoi of the University of Macau, Larisa Kislova of the Republic Library for Youth and Children (Kyrgyzstan), Tutu Mukherjee of the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (India), D. B. Vuwa Phiri …

Scholars Represent Maxwell Institute In Education Week Lectures

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

During Education Week, noted Maxwell Institute scholars presented a series of well-attended classes titled “The Work of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute at BYU,” focusing on aspects of the Institute’s ongoing work.