Summary
2001 FAIR Conference
The 3th annual Mormon Apologetics Conference sponsored by FAIR (The Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research) Conference was held in August 2001 at the Provo Women’s Center in Provo, Utah.
*Note: the actual schedule from the 2001 FAIR Conference isn’t available, so speakers are listed in alphabetical rather than chronological order.
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S. Kent Brown
Arabia and the Book of Mormon
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S. Kent Brown is a professor of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University and is the current director of Ancient Studies on campus. He served as the director of the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies from 1993 to 1996. His degrees include a B.A. in 1967 from the University of California at Berkeley in Classical Greek, with a minor in Near Eastern languages, and a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Brown University in 1972, with an emphasis in New Testament and Early Christian Studies. He is married to the former Gayle Oblad; they are the parents of five children and the grandparents of sixteen grandchildren.
Brant A. Gardner
A Social History of the Early Nephites
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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.
John Gee
Egyptian Influence in Ancient Israel (PDF)
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John Gee is the William (Bill) Gay Research Chair and a Senior Research Fellow at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University.
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Benjamin L. McGuire is a technologist in the field of healthcare in northern Michigan, where he lives with his wife and three children. He has special interest in the field of literary theory and its application to the Book of Mormon and early LDS literature. He has previously published with the Maxwell Institute.
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Louis C. Midgley was born and raised in a suburb of Salt Lake City. He received a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from the University of Utah, and, after teaching for a year at Weber State University, he and his wife moved to Providence, Rhode Island, where he received his Ph.D. from Brown University in the political science department. He taught the history of political and legal philosophy for thirty-six years at Brigham Young University, from which he retired in 1996.
Dr. Midgley has had an abiding interest in the history of Christian theology. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on Paul Tillich, the then-famous German-American Protestant theologian and political theorist/religious-socialist activist. Midgley also studied the writings of other influential Protestant theologians such as Karl Barth. Eventually he took an interest in contemporary Roman Catholic theology, and was also impacted by the work of important Jewish philosophers, including especially Leo Strauss and his disciples.
He has, since 2001, served as an associate editor of the FARMS Review, a publication of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship.
Dr. Midgley served two missions to New Zealand—the first in 1950-52 and the second, with his wife, in 1999-2000, during which they directed the Lorne Street Institute of Religion, in Auckland.
He is married to the former Ireta Troth, of Bountiful, Utah. They are the parents of two sons and a daughter.
L. Ara Norwood
Benjamin or Mosiah: Resolving an Anomaly in Mosiah 21:28
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L. Ara Norwood earned an MA in management from Claremont
Graduate University, where he studied with Peter F. Drucker. As managing partner of Leadership Development Systems, he writes and lectures widely on leadership and related subjects.
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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.
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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
Scholarship in Mormonism and Mormonism in Scholarship
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John A. Tvedtnes 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.
Scott C. Woodward
DNA and the Book of Mormon (Audio/Video Format)
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Scott C. Woodward graduated with his PhD in instructional psychology and technology from Brigham Young University. He has been a professional Latter-day Saint educator in the Church Educational System for nearly twenty years, including in Seminaries and Institutes, in Religious Education at BYU, and currently as a member of the religion faculty at BYU–Idaho.
Speakers
Ross Baron, S. Kent Brown, Brant Gardner, John Gee, Ben McGuire, Louis Midgley, L. Ara Norwood, Daniel C. Peterson, Matt Roper, John Tvedtnes, Scott Woodward
Topics
Feeding the Multitudes: Being Fishers of Men, Arabia and the Book of Mormon, A Social History of the Early Nephites, Egyptian Influence in Ancient Israel, Nephi and Goliath: A Reappraisal of the Use of the Old Testament in First Nephi, Naturalistic Terms: Some Reflections on a Motto and Type of Historical Explanation, Benjamin or Mosiah: Resolving an Anomaly in Mosiah 21:28, The Divine Source of the Book of Mormon in the Face of Alternative Theories Advocated by LDS Critics, Right on Target: Boomerang Hits and the Book of Mormon, Scholarship in Mormonism and Mormonism in Scholarship, DNA and the Book of Mormon
John Taylor Award
Each year, FAIR awards the John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award to a volunteer who made meritorious contributions to FAIR’s mission and outstanding personal efforts in helping defend The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In 2001, the John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award recipient was Scott Gordon