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Restoring The Original Text Of The Book Of Mormon

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

Elegantly produced and weighing in at 652 pages, the first part of volume 4 in Professor Royal Skousen’s ongoing Book of Mormon critical text project has just come from the press. Volumes 1 and 2, containing transcripts of the original manuscript and the printer’s manuscript of the Book of Mormon, were published by FARMS in 2001. Volume 3, which will describe the history of the Book of Mormon text from Joseph Smith’s original dictation through the current standard editions, will appear after all parts of volume 4 have been published. Volume 3 will include a complete analysis of the grammatical …

A Reconciliation Of Pauline Complementarian Theology And Egalitarian Narratives In The New Testament, Paul Andrew Morss

Masters Theses

The debate about women having authority over men or serving in leadership roles within the church is a controversial topic that has existed for some time. There are different interpretations of the complementarian and egalitarian debate surrounding specific areas in scripture. The Bible is a source of wisdom and truth that is used to direct the lives of Christians and the church. However, both sides point to the same text as the justification for their beliefs. The complementarian and egalitarian debate is far-reaching, but I plan to look at one subject within the larger debate. The scope of my thesis …

Biblical Based Servant Leadership And The Liberian Methodist Church: Lessons From The Christological Hymn In Phil. 2:7-11, Daniel Reeves

Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses

Sometimes a biblical understanding of leadership challenges cultural and traditional understanding. It’s the context of the Liberian traditional and cultural understanding of leadership that my research will focus on. My project will show the continued need for servant leadership, which is demonstrated by the portrait of Jesus in the Christological hymn and the Gospel. The theses will focus on contrasting traditional Christian leadership within the United Methodist Church in Liberia with the humility of Jesus’ servant leadership. This research hopes to offer academic authentic transformative ideas of servant leadership and intentional examples to the continuous study of servant leadership. However, …

Chanting The Medicine Buddha Sutra: A Musical Transcription And English Translation Of The Medicine Buddha Service Of The Liberation Rite Of Water And Land At Fo Guang Shan Monastery, Jeffrey W. Cupchik

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

A book review is presented for Reed Criddle, ed., Chanting the Medicine Buddha Sutra: A Musical Transcription and English Translation of the Medicine Buddha Service of the Liberation Rite of Water and Land at Fo Guang Shan Monastery. Recent Researches in the Oral Traditions of Music 13. Philip V. Bohlman, general editor. Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, 2020. 77 pages.

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

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Forthcoming Publications

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

Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part 1,by Royal Skousen, is the first part of volume 4 of the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project. Covering the title page through 2 Nephi 10, it analyzes every significant variant in the original and printer’s manuscripts and in 20 important editions of the Book of Mormon (from the 1830 edition to the 1981 edition). The task of this volume is to use the earliest textual sources and patterns of systematic usage to recover the original English-language text. Available August 2004.

Looking Forward To 25 More Years Of Farms

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

This is an excerpt from a dinner speech that FARMS founder John W. Welch gave to members of the FARMS Development Council on 19 March 2004.

An evening like this, which begins our commemoration of the 25th anniversary of FARMS, makes me think back to our founding days in 1979. Keeping alive the memory of foundation stories, of creation accounts, is part of keeping on track for the future.

Lectures On Christianity In The Middle East

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

In March the Institute cosponsored a lecture series at Brigham Young University titled “Christianity in the Middle East.” The series provided a historical overview of the eastward spread of Christianity into the pagan Near East, a subject largely neglected in religious and socio-cultural studies. Over many centuries, Christian groups maintained a presence in the region, leaving behind a notable literary, monumental, and artistic legacy that is increasingly being recognized as an important part of the world’s cultural heritage.

‘Binding Of Isaac’ Focus Of Farms Conference, Lecture

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

Genesis 22 records that God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac upon an altar but intervened at the last moment, providing instead a ram for the actual sacrifice and greatly blessing Abraham for passing what has come to be viewed as the ultimate test of obedience to God’s will. The account, simple enough in outline, is nevertheless seen by different religious traditions as profoundly symbolic and even enigmatic, its moral and religious implications having spawned numerous interpretations.

Owning The Liturgy: The Foundation For Any Ecclesiology Of Worship, Thomas O’Loughlin

Pastoral Liturgy

No abstract provided.

Pastoral Liturgy 53 (1) Complete Journal

Pastoral Liturgy

No abstract provided.

60 Years And Looking Forward: Possible Liturgy Futures, Gerard Moore

Pastoral Liturgy

No abstract provided.

Prolegomena To A Buddhist(Ic) Critique Of Capitalism, James Mark Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

Not even three decades removed from Francis Fukuyama’s post-Cold War proclamation of the “End of History,” the Western world is now undergoing a crisis of conscience – at the very least – with respect to both capitalism as an economic system and neoliberalism as its less-recognized but ever-present ideological foundation. The financial crisis of 2008, the subsequent Great Recession, the Occupy movement(s) of 2011, the 2016 challenge of self-styled Democratic Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination, and growing anxiety about the fate of the planet, particularly among the young, have opened up new avenues of critique, and brought …

Semiotic Transfiguration: Becoming More Fully Human, Vern Hyndman

Doctor of Ministry

Jesus invites us into a new life, not simply adherents to a set of standards. Jesus invites us through a power not our own to become most fully human; alive Spiritually, Physically, Intellectually, Relationally, and Emotionally (SPIRE). We become Jesus-InSPIREd holistic human beings, invited to participate in God-powered transfiguration of ourselves and others.

The United States Military uses challenge coins to encourage soldiers, and the coins display visual metaphors that echo the values and objectives of the donor and the donor’s unit. I made a challenge coin for Leonard Sweet as a gift of thanks for his generosity to me …

A Reflection On The Challenges And Collaborative Potential In Working With Buddhist Studies Materials In East Asian Librarianship, Matthew Hayes

Journal of East Asian Libraries

This article explores a set of shared challenges that tend to emerge for East Asian Librarians in working with Buddhist studies materials. It outlines how Buddhist linguistic conventions can give rise to an unpredictability in reference work, how its historical textual practices can complicate collections development, and how Buddhist temple archive management can make traditional approaches to research advising unreliable. It also proposes that these challenges provide distinct opportunities for collaboration across Chinese, Japanese, and Korean areas of bibliographic coverage. These challenges offer a chance for librarians to work together and develop a standard, field-wide toolset for working with these …

Full Issue

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

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Review Responds To Distortions Of Dna Evidence, Mormon Origins

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

The latest issue of the FARMS Review (vol. 15, no. 2, 2003) responds in full measure to two works challenging the historicity of the Book of Mormon and the foundational events of the restored Church of Jesus Christ. The contributing scholars not only expose fatal flaws in the critics’ arguments and methods but also provide background information and perspectives that readers will find instructive. In addition, this issue of the Review evaluates several other recent publications in Mormon studies and includes a Book of Mormon bibliography for 2002.

Restoration Jewish Evangelism: A Dispensational Paradigm For Jewish Evangelism, Justin R. Woods

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Local Jewish populations within proximity of U.S. churches are perishing in their need to hear the Christian gospel. Obstacles to Jewish evangelism have festered through the centuries. Modern scholarship has held culpable the supersessionist traditions from the early church fathers and carried over to the present day. Dispensational pastors and scholars have acted on the front lines to correct this grievance. Restoration Jewish Evangelism (RJE) supplies a template of Jewish evangelism centered on a dispensational view of Romans 9—11. The goal of this project includes strengthening the parishioners’ situational awareness and self-confidence to engage in sharing the gospel of the …

Turning Points In The Expansion Of Christianity: From Pentecost To The Present, Alice T. Ott, Baker Academic, 2021 (Isbn 978-0-8010-9996-0), Xxii + 298 Pp., Pb $29.99.”, Olegs Andrejevs

Theology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Full Issue

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

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The Archaic Vocabulary Of The Book Of Mormon, Royal Skousen

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

In my work as editor of the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project (which began in 1988), I was initially interested in discovering the original English-language text of the book. But I soon came to the conclusion that it would be impossible to fully recover the original text by scholarly means, in large part because only 28 percent of the original manuscript is extant. In addition, there are obvious errors in the original manuscript itself that require conjectural emendation. As I have worked on the text of the Book of Mormon, I have come to some surprising conclusions regarding the …

New Volume Explores Themes, Background Of Book Of Abraham

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

Astronomy, Papyrus, and Covenant, the third volume in FARMS’s Studies in the Book of Abraham, was recently published and is now available. This book deals with three broad themes: astronomy in the Book of Abraham, the background of the Joseph Smith Papyri, and the nature of the Abrahamic covenant. In the course of treating these subjects, various papers discuss Jews in Ptolemaic Egypt, commonalities between the Book of Abraham and ancient Islamic texts, accounts of Abraham in 19th-century America, and a number of other interesting issues. All but 3 of the 12 articles were initially presented as papers at a …

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

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Textual Analysis Of Book Of Mormon Continues

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

FARMS and Brigham Young University are pleased to announce the release of part 2 of volume 4 of the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project, Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon. Part 2 analyzes the text from 2 Nephi 11 through Mosiah 16.

New Research Pushes Christian Apostasy Earlier In Time

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

A much­-anticipated book exploring the root causes of the early Christian apostasy is now off the press: Early Christians in Disarray: Contemporary LDS Perspectives on the Christian Apostasy, edited by Noel B. Reynolds and published by FARMS and BYU Press.

Full Issue

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

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Byu Anthropologist Addresses Maya Origins Puzzle

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

In 2001 the chance discovery of a 2,000-year-old Maya mural in a chamber buried beneath a pyramid in the Guatemalan jungle stirred the archaeological community. It was a sensational find, one of the most important for Mayanists in half a century. Rendered in brilliant colors with exquisite skill, the remarkably well-preserved mural reveals a highly sophisticated artistic tradition and hieroglyphic script predating the Maya’s golden age by 800 years.

Farms Review Probes Geography, Papyri, Isaiah, Creation, And More

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

The latest FARMS Review (vol. 16, no. 2, 2004) is another weighty issue flush with articles covering a wide array of interesting topics. In the lineup are reviews of works on Book of Mormon geography, de-Christianization of the Old Testament, the Joseph Smith Papyri, Isaiah’s central message, Jerusalem in Lehi’s day, creation theology, gospel symbolism, and the Christian countercult movement. Also included are two freestanding essays, one older article of lasting appeal (initiating a new feature in the Review), book notes, a 2003 Book of Mormon bibliography, and the editor’s top picks of recent publications. A foretaste of the many …

Latest Addition To The Collected Works Of Hugh Nibley Series

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

FARMS is pleased to announce the release of a new volume of previously unpublished class lectures by celebrated Latter-day Saint scholar Hugh Nibley, who recently passed away at age 94. Apostles and Bishops in Early Christianity, volume 15 in the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley series, comprises Nibley’s finely detailed lecture notes for a course he taught at Brigham Young University in 1954 on the office of bishop in the early Christian church.

Full Issue

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

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