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

The Maxwell Institute continues to encourage and support the work of graduate and undergraduate students through two funds.

New Series Launched With Book On Dna Research

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

In the last few years, the topic of how DNA research fits in with the text of the Book of Mormon has become increasingly divisive. On the one hand, critics of the Church seize on recent DNA studies to claim that Native Americans are descended from Asian, not Middle Eastern, ancestors. On the other hand, faithful LDS scholars, including some of the most respected DNA researchers in the country, say the data from recent research is insufficient to deny or confirm the claims of the Book of Mormon.

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

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Latest Issue Of The Farms Review

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

The latest issue of the FARMS Review (vol. 21, no. 2) opens with an editor’s introduction by Lou Midgley that probes a dilemma facing evangelicals: much of their belief system is traceable to Augustine’s efforts to infuse Christianity with concepts drawn from classical (pagan) philosophy. Midgley discusses how this alien admixture does not square with the evangelical belief in biblical sufficiency, or “Bible alone.” He also calls attention to how the noted evangelical scholar N. T. Wright has recently put evangelicals on the defensive by challenging the entrenched but (in Wright’s view) misguided notion of “justification by faith alone.”

Joseph Smith’S Plea As Communal Lament, Dan Belnap

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

To complement the premiere issue of Studies in the Bible and Antiquity, which will be sent to our subscribers, we asked Dan Belnap, whose article appears in the first issue, to briefly expand part of his topic for Insights.

Nibley Lecture Series To Be Held

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

A lecture series entitled “The Work of Hugh W. Nibley: On the 100th Anniversary of His Birth” will be held during winter semester 2010 at BYU.

March 2010 marks the 100th anniversary of Nibley’s birth. In addition, One Eternal Round, volume 19 of the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, the final volume of the series, will have been published.

Behind The Messiah Documentary, S. Kent Brown

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

The following is part 3 of a three-part series of articles written by S. Kent Brown, executive producer of Messiah: Behold the Lamb of God, a Neal A. Maxwell Institute, BYU Broadcasting, and Religious Education production. BYU Television will air the seven-part documentary beginning on January 10, 2010. Copies will be available for purchase in the spring. This third article reviews unusual occurrences tied to the early filming in Egypt and Israel.

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

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Peterson Participates In World Parliament

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

Daniel C. Peterson, professor of Islamic studies and Arabic and editor in chief of the Middle Eastern Texts Initiative, will chair a plenary session at the Parliament of the World’s Religions held December 3–9, 2009, in Melbourne, Australia.

Entitled “Islam and the West: Creating an Accord of Civilisations,” the panel discussion will center on understanding Islam. Peterson’s involvement illustrates METI’s engagement with scholars worldwide.

Valuable Research Tool Available Soon

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

By the end of this year, “Nineteenth-Century Publications about the Book of Mormon (1829–1844)” will be made available as one of the Harold B. Lee Library’s digital collections.

Building on the work of previous generations of researchers, Matthew Roper, research scholar with the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, has collected digital facsimiles and electronic transcriptions of as many of these early publications as could be found.

Givens Featured Speaker At First Biennial Willes Center Lecture

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

The Book of Mormon and its status as an American Bible was the subject of the First Biennial Laura F. Willes Center Book of Mormon Lecture held October 8, 2009, at Brigham Young University. Terryl L. Givens, professor of literature and religion and occupant of the James Bostwick Chair of English at the University of Richmond, focused his remarks on two points: the provenance of the Book of Mormon and major motifs within it.

Behind The Messiah Documentary, S. Kent Brown

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

The following is part 2 of a three-part series of articles written by S. Kent Brown, executive producer of Messiah: Behold the Lamb of God, a Neal A. Maxwell Institute, BYU Broadcasting, and Religious Education production. BYU Television will air part of the series on December 6, 2009. The entire seven-part documentary will air beginning on January 10, 2010. Copies will be available for purchase in the spring. This second article explores the path by which the film climbed from a simple concept to a completed project.

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

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A Note On Volcanism And The Book Of Mormon, Matt Roper

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

The account of the great destruction at the death of Christ in Third Nephi relates that many cities at the time were destroyed by fire (3 Nephi 8:14; 9:3, 9–11). In an article published in 1998, geologist Bart Kowallis argued that the destructive events, including the burning of cities described there, are consistent with the effects of a significant volcanic event. The volcanic interpretation fits particularly well in a Mesoamerican setting where volcanic events are historically common. Additional support for this interpretation can be found in Mormon’s description of the aftermath of these events. In his abridgement of the subsequent …

Changes Coming To Periodical Subscriptions

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

With the addition of a new annual periodical at year’s end, Maxwell Institute subscribers will be offered new options effective January 1, 2010.

All current subscribers will receive a complimentary copy of the first issue of Studies in the Bible and Antiquity at the end of 2009. This periodical focuses on the Bible and the ancient biblical world. Beginning in January 2010, this periodical, as well as the other Maxwell Institute periodicals, will be available as part of the new basic subscription structure.

Nibley Magnum Opus To Be Released Soon

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

Hugh Nibley’s long-anticipated One Eternal Round is in the final stages of production. This volume represents the culmination of Nibley’s thoughts and research on the Book of Abraham, especially Facsimile 2.

Behind The Messiah Documentary, S. Kent Brown

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

The following is part 1 of a two-part series of articles written by S. Kent Brown, executive producer of Messiah: Behold the Lamb of God. During production he was director of the Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies and FARMS at the Maxwell Institute. Messiah: Behold the Lamb of God, a documentary produced by the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, the College of Religious Education, and BYU Broadcasting, received a sneak preview at BYU’s Education Week in August. For the first time ever, teachings of the restoration, sound academic views from faithful Latter-day Saint scholars, …

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

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Blossoming With Books: Syriac Manuscripts From The Egyptian Desert

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

The birthplace and spiritual heart of Christian monasticism is the Nitrian Desert of Egypt and the long, shallow valley of Scetis (Wadi el-Natrun). It was to here, from the fourth century onwards, that Macarius the Great and other of the sainted desert fathers retreated from the world, devoting their lives to worship and prayer. While some monks chose to live in isolation as hermits, many others banded together to establish the first monasteries, building churches for worship and libraries for study.

Preview Of Forthcoming Farms Review

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

Readers awaiting this year’s first number of the FARMS Review (vol. 21, no. 1) will be rewarded with a deep lineup of reviews and other essays on the Book of Mormon. Sure to heighten anticipation is a promised peek at Terryl Givens’s in-press volume from Oxford University Press: The Book of Mormon: A Very Short Introduction. Chapter 2, “Themes,” will be featured in its entirety—a substantial excerpt from the 152-page work that will fill an important gap in Oxford’s popular Very Short Introduction series. Review readers will enjoy other Book of Mormon–related fare as well: a literary interpretation of the …

Of Scorpions, Vipers, And The Assassin’S Drug, D. Morgan Davis

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

Twelfth-century Cairo was a vibrant place. The legendary Saladin, who had recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187, had established himself there and was actively transforming it from a royal resort into a cosmopolitan center of power, commerce, learning, and culture. A pious Muslim, Saladin chose for his physician at court a Jew who had been twice exiled—first from his hometown of Cordoba, Spain (Andalusia), and then again from Fez, Morocco (al- Maghreb)—by the fanatical Almohad regime of Northwest Africa.

Rising Scholars Mentored Through Summer Seminar

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

A select group of graduate and advanced under- graduate students participated in a seminar on Mormon thought at BYU this past May and June. The participants’ papers presented at a public sym- posium on June 25 will be published in the near future.

Book Of Mormon Critical Text Project Completes Text Analysis

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

The Maxwell Institute and Brigham Young University are pleased to announce the publica- tion of part 6 of volume 4 of the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project, Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon. Part 6 analyzes the text from 3 Nephi 19 through Moroni 10.

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

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New Appointment For Editor Of Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Library

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

Donald W. Parry, Brigham Young University pro­ fessor of Biblical Hebrew and longtime contribu­ tor to the work of the Maxwell Institute, has been appointed as an editor for a new edition of Biblia Hebraica, the standard critical edition of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). He is one of about two dozen well­established Hebrew scholars from the world­ wide community also serving as editors for this new edition, and one of three from the United States.

Work Of The Maxwell Institute Highlighted In Presentations At Education Week

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

Brigham Young University Campus Education Week, slated for August 17–21, 2009, will feature a series of presentations that represent the range of the work done by the Maxwell Institute.

Beginning Wednesday, August 19, at 11:10 in the Assembly Hall of the Hinckley Center, Paul Y. Hoskisson, D. Morgan Davis Jr., and Kristian S. Heal will present on the topic “The Work of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute at BYU.”

New Nibley Volume Explores The Book Of Abraham

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

An Approach to the Book of Abraham, volume 18 in the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, is now avail­ able. This volume contains Nibley’s early work on the Book of Abraham and the Joseph Smith Papyri and is his closest look at Facsimile 1 of the Book of Abraham. In chapter 5, Nibley is at his best as he has Mr. Jones, the curator, conduct Dick and Jane through an imaginary museum in which the most important lion­couch scenes have all been gathered together in a single hall. Mr. Jones possesses a hand­ book that tells him all. In a …

Missing The Mark, Paul Y. Hoskisson

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

In teaching Book of Mormon at Brigham Young University over the past quarter century, I have rarely found a student, whether true freshman or returned missionary, who knows what the word mark means in Jacob 4:14.1 Most of them know that the mark symbolizes Christ in this verse, but they do not know what a mark is. That is, if a mark symbolizes Christ, then mark must be something in real life other than Christ. In fact, most Book of Mormon readers justifiably feel satisfied and uplifted by relying on what they think mark means in this verse. While it …

Anderson Speaks At Third Annual Neal A. Maxwell Lecture

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

With the intent of probing the lives of Christ and Joseph Smith, Richard Lloyd Anderson, emeritus professor of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University, gave the third annual Neal A. Maxwell Lecture, held March 20, 2009. Anderson discussed the reliability of the documentary process by which we know of events in the New Testament and in the early years of the Restoration.

Full Issue

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

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