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FAIR Podcast, Episode 7: Brian M. Hauglid p.1

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Brian M. Hauglid joins us in this two-part episode of the FAIR Podcast to discuss his brand new book, A Textual History of the Book of Abraham. He received a BA in Near Eastern Studies from Brigham Young University and an MA and PhD from the University of Utah in Arabic and Islamic Studies. He is currently an associate professor of Ancient Scripture at BYU. Along with John Gee, Hauglid is both principal investigator and general editor of the Studies in the Book of Abraham Series.

The Book of Abraham seems like one of the most difficult subjects to get an academic grip on in Mormon studies. Brian Hauglid tries to untangle some of the knots while situating his new book within the ongoing conversation about the Book of Abraham. Listeners might also be interested to check out the 2004 FAIR Conference presentation by Michael Ash and Kevin Barney, “The ABCs of the Book of Abraham” on youtube.

Questions or comments about this episode can be sent to [email protected] Or, join the conversation in the comments here at fairblog.org.

Runtime:

50:15

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Clark says

    When does this podcast date from? I’m curious if he addresses that new Dialog article.

  3. WVS says

    Thanks, Blair! Good to bring it all back up and nice to hear Brian talk about some of the new stuff.

  4. bhodges says

    Clark: We don’t talk as much about the papyri, Hauglid’s book deals with the actual textual history of the BoA. The interviews are intended to give a general overview of some BoA issues, as well as insight into the making of and composition of the “Textual History” book.

  5. bhodges says

    ps- the iTunes feed usually takes a few hours to update, so the new episode should be ready there by tomorrow morning at the latest.

  7. bhodges says

    Thanks Clark. Part one largely sets the stage for part two, giving a broad overview of the history of the papyri and a little about Brian;s new book.

  8. bhodges says

    Looks like iTunes is experiencing a lot of slowness uploading podcasts currently, so hang in there if you’re subscribed that way. (Or just download it here for pete’s sake!)

  10. Thaddeus says

    Just finished listening. I’m wondering why the recent proposal of the Kirtland Egyptian Papers as a cypher encryption key wasn’t discussed. Dr. Hauglid still seems mystified by the KEPs in this interview. I watched the FAIR presentation on that topic last summer and it appeared quite conclusive.

  11. BHodges says

    Thaddeus, Hauglid is still somewhat mystified by the other Egyptian papers as far as I could tell. We talk more about that in the second part. He doesn’t believe the cypher theory is the final say, it seems to me.

  12. Nate says

    What did you mean by the cosmology in the book of Abraham is an old outdated astronomy and not something that would help Hawking? It’s at 38:24.

  13. BHodges says

    Hi Nate. What I meant is that the astronomy outlined in the Book of Abraham does not seem to match up well with current scientific thought on the subject. In other words, Abraham’s revelation was context-specific and made sense to him in a way that helped him understand the purposes of God (and perhaps impress the Egyptians at the same time).

    I think a fine case has been made that the BoA depicts a geocentric astronomy, that is, an understanding of astronomy centered on the earth. You might be interested in “And I Saw the Stars — The Book of Abraham and Ancient Geocentric Astronomy” by John Gee, William J. Hamblin, and Daniel C. Peterson. It’s a chapter in Astronomy, Papyrus, and Covenant, another book in the “Studies in the Book of Abraham Series,” of which Brian Hauglid is an editor. You can read it for free here:

    http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/books/?bookid=40&chapid=161

    Another chapter in that book that might interest you is “Astronomy and the Creation in the Book of Abraham” by J. Ward Moody, and Michael D. Rhodes:

    http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/books/?bookid=40&chapid=162

    Of course, people are perfectly free to try and match elements of astronomy from the text with current scientific views. The only effort in this line I’ve seen so far was not persuasive to me personally, however.

    Best!

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