Through Joseph Smith, the Lord has called upon his Saints to “be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand; …That ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to magnify the calling whereunto I have called you, and the mission with which I have commissioned you” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:78, 80).
In a modest attempt to contribute to such instruction, an extraordinary and interesting gathering of faithful Latter-day Saint scholars and thinkers occurs every year in early August. But it’s not aimed solely or even primarily at an academic audience. Quite the contrary, in fact: The yearly FairMormon conference represents an effort to bring the results of solid scholarship to a general audience.
The 2019 FairMormon conference is now almost upon us. It will convene at the Utah Valley Convention Center in Provo, Utah, on Aug. 7-9. And the program of this year’s conference is a richly varied one.
For example, Jack Welch and Jeannie Welch will cast a Latter-day Saint light upon the New Testament gospels with their discussion of “Parables of Jesus Revealing the Plan of Salvation” and Jasmin Rappleye will introduce “ScripturePlus: The Future of Scripture Study.”
The independent scholar Don Bradley will blend his careful study of very early Latter-day Saint history with autobiography in a presentation titled “Joseph Smith’s First Vision as Endowment and Epitome of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (or Why I Came Back to the Church).”
Angela Hallstrom, Elizabeth Kuehn and Wendy Ulrich will focus on the experience of women in the restored church, with three distinct presentations titled, respectively, “Women’s Voices in Saints Volume 2,” “Apostles and Their Wives 1839-41” and “Women, Men and Priesthood Power.”
The Book of Mormon, the keystone of Latter-day Saint faith, will be the focus of several presentations. Richard Terry, for instance, will dish out “The Dirt on the Ancient Inhabitants of Mesoamerica.” Brian Hales, in “Supernatural or Supernormal? Scrutinizing Secular Sources for the Book of Mormon,” will examine texts that have been proposed by critics as places from which, they claim, Joseph Smith borrowed materials in order to create a fictional account of Nephites, Lamanites and Jaredites.
Matt Roper and Kirk Magleby will come together for an explanation of how “Time Vindicates the Prophet.” The prolific writer and historian Larry Morris will consider the value of the testimonies of “The Eight Witnesses” as evidence. Under the title of “'Idle Tales'? The Witness of Women,” Daniel Peterson will survey the indispensable role of women’s testimonies to, among others, the pivotal historical events of the resurrection of Jesus and the recovery of the Book of Mormon.
Matthew Bowen of Brigham Young University’s Hawaii campus, trained in the study of the Hebrew Bible and ancient Egyptian, will continue his ongoing study of Book of Mormon names with “Laman and Nephi as Key-Words: An Etymological, Narratological, and Rhetorical Approach to Understanding Lamanites and Nephites as Religious, Political, and Cultural Descriptors.”
The history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will receive attention from Matthew C. Godfrey (“Insights from the Joseph Smith Papers into John C. Bennett’s Dismissal from the Church”), Scott Hales (“The Exodus and Beyond: A Preview of Saints, Volume 2: No Unhallowed Hand”), and Matthew McBride (“Answering Historical Questions with Church History Topics”).
As that last title hints, speakers at the FairMormon conference don’t avoid challenging questions. To the contrary, they address them directly. Thus, Ben Spackman will speak on “A Paradoxical Preservation of Faith: How LDS Creation Accounts Compel Us to Recognize the Nature of Revelation.” Scott Gordon, the president of FairMormon, will address one much ballyhooed compilation of poor arguments against the Restoration in his “CES Letter: Proof or Propaganda?” Rene Krywult, from Vienna, is slated to speak under the title “Fear Leads to the Dark Side: How to Navigate the Shallows of Internet (Mis)Information.” And, in “Faith Is Not Blind,” Elder Bruce C. Hafen and Sister Marie K. Hafen will consider such challenges on a more general level.
Elder Craig C. Christensen, currently serving as a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will discuss “Foundations of Our Faith.” Tad R. Callister, formerly the Sunday School general president, and, prior to that, himself a General Authority Seventy, will also address the conference.
For more information about the 2019 FairMormon conference, see www.fairmormon.org/conference/august-2019.