By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog

Hey!! Jan Shipps will be speaking TONIGHT at the Salt Lake City Library. It would be difficult to overstate the importance of Jan’s work for Mormon Studies. In particular, her 1985 book Mormonism should be near the very top of anyone’s list of Really Important Books You Must Read if You’re Going to Think of Yourself as a Reasonably Informed Mormon or Student of Mormons or Mormonism (RIBYMRIYGTTOYAARIMOSOMOM).

Jan will be speaking about what the field of Religious Studies offers for the study of Mormonism. Besides being an astute observer of Mormonism, Jan is a witty and engaging speaker and a delightful character and YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THIS TALK if you can possibly get there!!

Tuesday, November 17
Level 4 Meeting Room, Salt Lake City Main Library
210 East 400 South, Salt Lake.

Mingling at 6:30 pm, lecture starts at 7:00 pm.

Three cheers for Sunstone for sponsoring the event!!

The Religious Studies Program at Utah Valley University sponsors its 10th Annual (wow!) Mormon Studies Conference November 5-6, on campus in Orem. The theme is “Outmigration and the Mormon Quest for Education,” and the lineup of speakers includes Wesley Johnson and Marian Johnson (co-directors of the Mormon Outmigration Project), Grethe and (former University of Utah President) Chase Peterson, and rock star sociologists Armand Mauss and Jan Shipps. Also, it may be the only time that Jack Welch and Mike Quinn have appeared on the same program (putting an end to the persistent rumors that they’re really the same person)* Read the rest of this entry »

Our very own Steven Peck will be giving a talk on Mormonism and ecology this coming Sunday November 1, at 6 o’clock at Sunstone House–343 N. 3rd West. Go!

Details here.

Um, hi, my name is Kristine, and I’m an intellectual. Read the rest of this entry »

Yet another really intriguing conference announcement, with some excellent bloggernacle representation:

Conference
A conference, “Latter-day Saint Readings of Revelation 21-22,” will be
held on September 25th on the UT-Austin campus, in the Theater in the
Texas Union (Room 2.228). The schedule is as follows: Read the rest of this entry »

Note: I wrote this a long time ago. I could articulate some of the same criticisms of the Sunstone symposium that Jonathan did–I agree with many of them. But my perspective is also informed by affection, because I have been to many Sunstone symposia (sorry, Elbert), and learned from them in many ways, even from people that I (often fiercely) disagree with. I do not find all the presentations scintillating, I do not approve of the tone of many sessions, and (to my shame) I’m not very patient listening to people’s personal stories of pain. Still, I think there is value in the existence of Sunstone, and that value is not entirely effable (why do we only have that word modified with a negative prefix? Like “gruntled”). If you haven’t been to a Sunstone Symposium, I’d ever-so-gently suggest that it might be good to withhold judgment, or at least temper your public expressions of disdain.

Why I Love Sunstone

September 29, 2004 — Kristine

The other day, over at that other blog, Sunstone was getting its quarterly flogging. I’ve reread my responses on that thread, and it strikes me that I was not my usual cool-as-a-cucumber (ha!) self. I’m irrationally defensive of Sunstone and Dialogue and Exponent II and all of those independent Mormon publications that some people think are soooo two decades ago. The reason is simple, really: Sunstone saved my life. Read the rest of this entry »

Mormon History Association
2010 Independence Missouri Conference
Call for Papers
The Home and the Homeland: Families in Diverse Mormon Traditions

The forty-fifth annual conference of the Mormon History Association will be held May 27-30, 2010, at the Kansas City Sports Complex Hotel in Kansas City, MO. It has been twenty-five years since the last MHA conference was held in Missouri. The 2010 theme, “The Home and the Homeland: Families in Diverse Mormon Traditions” recognizes the family as a central social and religious institution within Mormon traditions. Tanner Lecturer Catherine Brekus of the University of Chicago will address the topic of “Women in Early Mormonism.” Read the rest of this entry »

There are approximately 1,016 reasons why you should support a publisher of Mormon fiction that is not Deseret Book. Here’s an opportunity to do it at a discount. Read the rest of this entry »

Parley and Orson Pratt and Nineteenth-Century Mormon Thought

Public Symposium at Brigham Young University
July 2, 2009
B092 of the Joseph F. Smith Building at BYU

In the tradition of Richard Bushman’s summer seminars on Joseph Smith and early Mormonism, eight graduate students, under the direction of Terryl Givens and Matthew Grow, have studied the writings of Orson and Parley Pratt and will be presenting their research at this symposium. Read the rest of this entry »

Call for Papers

The Family and Human Relationships in History, Literature, Art, and Philosophy
May 21-22, 2010, Claremont, CA
A conference sponsored by Mormon Scholars in the Humanities

Every story, it is said, is a family story. Yet in stressing the freedom and self-sufficiency of the individual, modern culture de-emphasizes the degree to which people are born in dependency, of specific parents, and develop in and through relationships with others, most closely in the family. By considering the family, family history, and human relationships, we invite inquiry into changes in the culture of the family over time, inquiries into family memory, depictions of the family and the individual in art and literature, and philosophical investigations of the role of family, friends, and mentors in personal development. Read the rest of this entry »

My ex-husband serves in an EQ Presidency, and they’ve been trying to make short, get acquainted kinds of visits to quorum members. One of his appointment-setting e-mails received this (tongue in cheek) response:

How short? Five minutes, ten minutes, more minutes? Will you and Jonathan remove your shoes when you enter our house? (Having served a mission in Canada, I assume I need not ask concerning Steve.) Will you all be wearing fresh socks so as to not offend when you remove your shoes upon entering our house? Will there be a spiritual message, a religious message, a mingled message or none of the preceding? Any other messages? If yes, please elaborate. Are you going to try to make us feel bad about not measuring-up to certain Ward, Stake or personal goals or failing to effectively take charge of an EQ committee that one may have been unilaterally assigned to chair? If you do try, how concerned should we be that you will succeed? (We don’t like feeling bad.) Read the rest of this entry »

You should, for this. It looks like a GREAT lineup:

Sacred Space Symposium – 3 June

First Session: Hinckley Center Assembly Hall

9:15 Welcome: Cecil Samuelson, President, BYU Read the rest of this entry »

Ethan Yorgason is Professor of Geography at Kyungpook National University in Daegu, South Korea. He has also recently taught history and geography at BYU-Hawaii, and was winner of the MHA’s Best First Book Award for Transformation of the Mormon Culture Region.

I know the Church is true because …

Latter-day Saints follow up with a variety of phrases and ideas. Many answers reference the direct relationship between God and the individual (i.e., I have received a burning in my bosom about Joseph Smith). Others point to how God works through people on the earth to answer individual prayers (i.e., the missionaries showed up at my door in my hour of despair to teach me the truth). Still others look more broadly at the Church itself and the Mormon community (i.e., the Church has a lay ministry, just as it did in the time of Christ). Read the rest of this entry »

Margaret mentioned the Segullah staff’s excellent essay collection, The Mother in Me in her post on Mother’s Day talks. I also liked the book a great deal–here’s my review. Read the rest of this entry »

In the latest issue of The Atlantic (or, at least, the one I most recently got around to reading), Hanna Rosin has a provocative article on why mothers shouldn’t be or feel compelled to nurse their infants. She argues, rightly, that breastfeeding requires an inordinate amount of time, making it all but impossible for a nursing mother to do paid work. The benefits to the infant, at least as measured so far, are not sufficient to justify the costs to the mother. Moreover, excluding fathers from the opportunity to bond with their infants by feeding them is inconsistent with newer cultural expectations of fathering, and introduces a sort of inequality into the parenting structure that is hard to overcome as the child grows.

I agree with her on all counts. And I think she is completely wrong. Read the rest of this entry »

Rise heart; thy Lord is risen. Sing his praise
Without delayes,
Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise
With him mayst rise :
That, as his death calcined thee to dust,
His life may make thee gold, and much more, just. Read the rest of this entry »

Part I
Part II
Part III

for Maundy Thursday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPB7hNk4I9k

Ubi caritas et amor,
Deus ibi est.
Exsultemus et in ipso jucundemur.
Timeamus et amemus Deum vivum.
Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor,
Et ex corde diligamus nos sinceros. Read the rest of this entry »

We’re pleased to liveblog and report on the final session of this remarkable conference. Predictions: more tears and more talks of persevering amidst adversity. Read the rest of this entry »

Tonight my firstborn son went to his first Priesthood session. It feels bittersweet, but mostly sweet. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s something I don’t say all that often: I love President Packer’s talk! Read the rest of this entry »

A few dozen reporters and a couple of goofy-looking bloggers assembled in the lobby between sessions of conference for a brief press conference. Elder Andersen looked terrifically uncomfortable as he waited for the press conference to begin. He said that he was “humbled by this day, very overwhelmed at what is ahead and the honor and responsibility that has come to me.” He expressed appreciation to the members of the church who had voted to sustain him, and his hope that he “can become what [he] must become in the years ahead.” He described the feelings of receiving the calling as “heaviness, weightiness, humbleness at contemplating what you’re expected to be.” Read the rest of this entry »

We will be reporting and photoblogging the Morning session as it develops. For more instant updates follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ByCommonConsent . Read the rest of this entry »

Utah Valley University’s Religious Studies Program is hosting what looks to be an engaging and informative conference next Thursday and Friday, April 2-3. The program looks excellent and includes Mormon Studies rock stars Terryl Givens, Richard and Claudia Bushman, Jana Riess, Stephen Carter, Grant Underwood, and others, as well as an all-star lineup of journalists including Peggy Fletcher Stack, Jennifer Dobner, and the Boston Globe’s Michael Paulson, who will deliver a keynote address. The program is littered with other interesting and important folks too numerous to name. Read the rest of this entry »

Name 10 general Relief Society, Primary, or Young Women’s Presidents.

For MC, with thanks

It seems to me that at Christmas, even more than most of the year, a good deal of pain comes from the sense that we ought to feel a particular way, and, for whatever reason, we can’t summon the emotion we believe is appropriate for the occasion at hand. The solution to this problem, as to so very many problems, can be found in choral music. Read the rest of this entry »