Skip to main content

2011 FAIR Conference


            Last year I attended the FAIR Conference for the first time and really enjoyed it. So this year I am going back. For those interested in Mormon Studies, or (more particularly) Mormon Apologetics, I strongly encourage you to attend.

            Last year there was ground-breaking research unveiled for the first time on the Kirtland Egyptian Papers and their connection to the Book of Abraham. This year will feature several speakers on a variety of topics. Here are just a few presentations that interest me in particular:

Stephen D. Ricks, “The Sacred Embrace in Ancient Egyptian Religion and Art”

Brant Gardner, “The Gift and Power: Translating the Book of Mormon”

Steven C. Harper, “Accounts of the First Vision”

Newell Bringhurst, “The 2012 Presidential Race and the Mormon Question” (As a political science major, I can’t help but get excited when my major and my hobby intersect like this!)

Don Bradley, “‘President Joseph Has Translated a Portion’: Solving the Mystery of the Kinderhook Plates” (This one sounds very promising…though I fear the title might be promising too much…I hope not though!)

Paul Fields, “Book of Mormon ‘Wordprint’ Analysis: How to do it wrong…and how to do it right” (My very good friend from high school, who recently finished his undergrad at BYU and has received a full-ride scholarship [or something like that] to Harvard for his graduate work, helped collect the research and data for this presentation)

Chris Watkins, “Excavating the Text: Archaeological Expectations for the Book of Mormon Peoples”

            There are several more presentations as well. The FAIR Bookstore also sets up shop at the conference and offers a lot of books as a discount price.

            For more information, click here. To get your tickets, click here.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Neal, expect to pleasantly surprised! =)

    BTW, how do you pronounce your last name?

    ReplyDelete

  2. Hey Don!

    Thanks for taking the time to visit my little, largely irrelevant, space on the internet. ;)

    I really look forward to what you have to offer this year, since the Kinderhook plates remain (in my view) one of the more confusing events in early LDS History. I hope you really have solved the mystery (also, I hope my comments in the posting didn't offend you, I just try to temper my expectations sometimes).

    My last name is pronounced Rapp-LEE. I know the "Y" in there really throws people off, they want to say it Rappl-EYE.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nephite History in Context 1: Jerusalem Chronicle

Editor’s Note: This is the first contribution to my new series Nephite History in Context: Artifacts, Inscriptions, and Texts Relevant to the Book of Mormon. Check out the really cool (and official, citable) PDF version here. To learn more about this series, read the introduction here. To find other posts in the series, see here. 
Jerusalem Chronicle (ABC 5/BM 21946)
Background
The so-called “Babylonian Chronicles” are an important collection of brief historical reports from Mesopotamia, found in Iraq in the late-19th century.1 They are written on clay tablets in Akkadian using cuneiform script, and cover much of the first millennium BC, although several tablets are missing or severely damaged, leaving gaps in the record. One tablet, colloquially known as the “Jerusalem Chronicle” (ABC 5/BM 21946),2 provides brief annal-like reports of the early reign of Nebuchadrezzar II (biblical Nebuchadnezzar), including mention of his invasion of Jerusalem.
Biblical sources report that King Jehoiac…
1 comment
Read more

Nephite History in Context 2a: Apocryphon of Jeremiah

Editor’s Note: This is the first part of the second contribution to my new series Nephite History in Context: Artifacts, Inscriptions, and Texts Relevant to the Book of Mormon. Check out the really cool (and official, citable) PDF version here. To learn more about this series, read the introduction here. To find other posts in the series, see here. 
Apocryphon of Jeremiah (4Q385a)
Background
Between 1947 and 1956, a few well preserved scrolls and tens of thousands of broken fragments were found scattered across eleven different caves along the northwest shores of the Dead Sea near Qumran. Now known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, they are arguably the most significant discovery ever made for the study of the Bible and the origins of Judaism and Christianity. Among the writings found are the earliest copies of nearly every Old Testament book, many of the known apocryphal and pseudepigraphic works, and several other texts discovered for the first time at Qumran. Altogether, more than 900 differe…
2 comments
Read more

Nephite History in Context 2b: Letters of ʿAbdu-Ḫeba of Jerusalem (EA 285–290)

Editor’s Note: This is the second part of the second contribution to my new series Nephite History in Context: Artifacts, Inscriptions, and Texts Relevant to the Book of Mormon. Check out the really cool (and official, citable) PDF version here. To learn more about this series, read the introduction here. To find other posts in the series, see here.
Letters of ʿAbdu-Ḫeba of Jerusalem (EA 285–290)
Background
The Amarna Letters make up the bulk of the 382 cuneiform tablets found at Amarna, Egypt in 1887. The letters date to the mid-fourteenth century BC (ca. 1365–1335 bc), with most of them coming from the reign of Akhenaten (ca. 1352–1336 bc), though some date to the reigns of Amenhotep III (ca. 1390–1352 bc) and perhaps Smenkhkara (ca. 1338–1336 bc) and Tutankhamun (ca. 1336–1327 bc). The collection includes international correspondence between Egypt and other nations, such as Assyria and Babylonia, but most of the letters are to and from vassal kings in the Syria-Palestine region, whic…
Post a Comment
Read more