Summary
1999 FAIR Conference
The 1st annual Mormon Apologetics Conference sponsored by FAIR (The Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research) Conference was held in California.
*Note: the actual schedule from the 1999 FAIR Conference isn’t available, so speakers are listed in alphabetical rather than chronological order.
Kevin L. Barney
A Tale of Two Restorations
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Bio
Kevin L. Barney was born in Logan, Utah, in 1958. He grew up in DeKalb, Illinois, prior to serving a mission to Colorado from 1977-1979. Upon his return from his mission he resumed his studies at BYU, where among other things he studied Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Coptic.
From 1982 to 1985 Kevin attended law school at the University of Illinois, after which he moved to Chicago, where he practices public finance law (currently with Kutak Rock LLP). In 1990, Kevin also earned a Master of Laws degree from DePaul University.
Kevin has published a couple of dozen articles, mostly relating to ancient scripture, in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, The Ensign, Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, Sunstone, FARMS Review, and BYU Studies, as well as a forthcoming publication in the Journal of Mormon History. He also edited the two-volume work Footnotes to the New Testament for Latter-day Saints.
He serves on the boards of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought and the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR), and also blogs at bycommonconsent.com.
Kevin is married to the former Sandy Lothson and has two children, Emily and Grant.
Barry R. Bickmore
Mormonism in the Early Jewish Christian Milieu
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Bio
Barry R. Bickmore is married to the former Keiko Guay, and they have three children. He holds a Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from Virginia Tech, and is the author of Restoring the Ancient Church: Joseph Smith and Early Christianity. Currently, he is an assistant professor of Geology at Brigham Young University. In the church he has been a seminary teacher, ward clerk, elder’s quorum president, and quorum teacher, among other things.
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Bio
Roger D. Cook is an instructor in the Philosophy Department at Brigham Young University and is pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Utah. He specializes in ancient philosophy and Near Eastern studies, philosophy of religion, epistemology, and apocalyptic Judaism and its contributions to Jewish Christianity.
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Bio
Brant A. Gardner (M.A. State University of New York Albany) is the author of Second Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon and The Gift and Power: Translating the Book of Mormon, both published through Greg Kofford Books. He has contributed articles to Estudios de Cultura Nahuatl and Symbol and Meaning Beyond the Closed Community.
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A native of southern California, Daniel C. Peterson received a bachelor’s degree in Greek and philosophy from Brigham Young University (BYU) and, after several years of study in Jerusalem and Cairo, earned his Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Dr. Peterson is a professor of Islamic Studies and Arabic at BYU, where he has taught Arabic language and literature at all levels, Islamic philosophy, Islamic culture and civilization, Islamic religion, the Qur’an, the introductory and senior “capstone” courses for Middle Eastern Studies majors, and various other occasional specialized classes. He is the author of several books and numerous articles on Islamic and Latter-day Saint topics–including a biography entitled Muhammad: Prophet of God (Eerdmans, 2007)—and has lectured across the United States, in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, and at various Islamic universities in the Near East and Asia. He served in the Switzerland Zürich Mission (1972-1974), and, for approximately eight years, on the Gospel Doctrine writing committee for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He also presided for a time as the bishop of a singles ward adjacent to Utah Valley University. Dr. Peterson is married to the former Deborah Stephens, of Lakewood, Colorado, and they are the parents of three sons.
D. Charles Pyle
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Bio
D. Charles Pyle is a former atheist. He came to Christ at 16 years of age and joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—only to fall away due to anti-Mormon claims. After his return, he fell in love with ancient texts. When 17 years of age, in poverty, he sold long-prized scientific equipment and books for pennies on the dollar to obtain means to purchase his first multiple-language text (a big Interlinear Bible), later learning to read biblical languages and amassing a collection of editions of ancient and modern texts from multiple world religions, grammars, lexicons, and other scholarly books. Limiting sleep to no more than five hours daily, he spent nights studying the ancient texts of the Bible and Apocrypha, early Christianity and world religions, and LDS doctrine and history.
He served a full-time mission, in the Illinois-Chicago Mission, for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from 1989-1991. He also has held various callings, including Elders’ Quorum President, Young Men Sunday School Teacher, Gospel Essentials Teacher, Stake Missionary, Special Stake Missionary (called to help members troubled by anti-Mormons), Gospel Doctrine Teacher, etc.
He also studied to read French, German, Latin, Syriac, Coptic, and Hieroglyphic Egyptian, with the intent of learning more and of reading a wider array of ancient texts, further enabling him to help others to find answers to gospel-related questions and concerns.
Matthew Roper
Salvation for the Dead: A Response to Luke Wilson
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Bio
Matthew Roper (MS from Brigham Young University), is a resident scholar at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University.
John A. Tvedtnes
Early Christian and Jewish Rituals Related to Temple Practices
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Bio
John A. Tvedtnes (1941–2018) was a senior resident scholar with the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University, where he worked full-time beginning in 1995 after many years of teaching and research in the U.S. and Israel. He earned degrees in anthropology, linguistics, and Middle East studies (Hebrew) at the University of Utah, and pursued additional graduate work in Egyptian and Semitic languages at the University of California, Berkeley, and at universities in Israel.
He taught biblical Hebrew, anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, and Middle Eastern history at the University of Utah, Brigham Young University, and the BYU Jerusalem Center, where he lived and worked from 1971 to 1979. He also lectured internationally, including at the University of Haifa, Brandeis University, and for professional associations such as the Society of Biblical Literature, the American Schools of Oriental Research, and the World Union of Jewish Studies.
The author of ten books and more than 300 articles, Tvedtnes published with institutions such as the Magnes Press of the Hebrew University, the Pontifical Biblical Institute, and the Journal of Near Eastern Studies. His wide-ranging scholarship bridged linguistics, archaeology, and scripture studies, with particular emphasis on the Book of Mormon, the Bible, and ancient Near Eastern texts.
Speakers
Kevin Barney, Barry Bickmore, Roger Cook, John Gee, Daniel C. Peterson, D. Charles Pyle, Matt Roper, John Tvedtnes
Topics
A Tale of Two Restorations, Mormonism in the Early Jewish Christian Milieu, Joshua the High Priest and the Council of the Gods in the Book of Zechariah: A Post-Exilic Jew in King Yahweh’s Court, The Corruption of Scripture in the Second Century, What Has Athens to do with Jerusalem?: Apostasy and Restoration in the Big Picture, I Have Said, ‘Ye are Gods’: Concepts Conducive to the Early Christian Doctrine of Deification in Patristic Literature and the Underlying Strata of the Greek New Testament Text, Salvation for the Dead: A Response to Luke Wilson, Early Christian and Jewish Rituals Related to Temple Practices