Many of you have probably already heard of it, but I wanted to be sure to alert you to a great upcoming symposium being organized by the Students of the Ancient Near East (SANE) at BYU that will be entitled “Temples and Ritual in Antiquity“. The symposium is scheduled for Friday, November 7, 2008 at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. I know that’s quite a ways off, but I didn’t think it would hurt to start generating some excitement about it already! Well, I’m excited, anyways…
I am posting the schedule of speakers below, which includes great names such as Drs. Bill Hamblin, David Seely, and John Gee, and Matthew Brown, to name a few. You will notice that there are also a number of students presenting, including myself. It will be a wonderful conference that you will not want to miss! Further details will be forthcoming, I am sure, but I will post the current proposed schedule here. Now the hard part will be deciding which ones to attend!
Morning Sessions
Ancient Israel (Location: WSC 3290)
9:00-9:30 Daniel O. McClellan–“The Maccabean Martyrs as a Temple Sacrifice”
9:30-10:00 Dr. Dan Belnap–“The Role of Scent in the Rituals of Ancient Israel”
10:00-10:30 David Larsen–“Two High Priesthoods? Evidence for Changes in the Priesthood from First to Second Temple Judaism”
10:30-11:00 Dr. Bill Hamblin–TBA
Early Christianity (WSC 3280)
9:00-9:30 Andrew Miller–“The Mysteries in Pauline Christianity”
9:30-10:00 Seth Kohrman–“Christian Asceticism: The Body as a Temple: Biblical Origins”
10:00-10:30 Daniel Becerra–“The Chrism in Early Christianity”
10:30-11:00 Rachel A. Grover–“The Paradise Garden and Messianic Age Imagery in the 5th to 7th Century Church Floor Mosaics of Jordan”
Egypt (WSC 3220)
9:00-9:30 Bryan Stephen Kerr–“The Dedication of War Booty to the Temple in Egyptian Literature”
9:30-10:00 Doug Marsh–“The Microcosmic Egyptian Temple”
10:00-10:30 Elliott Wise–“An Odor of Sanctity: The Iconography, Magic, and Liturgy of Egyptian Incense”
10:30-11:00 Dr. John Gee–“Rituals of the Egyptian Temple: An Orientation”
Afternoon Sessions
Ancient Israel (WSC 3290)
11:15-11:45 James Carroll–“An Expanded View of the Israelite Scapegoat”
11:45-12:15 Dr. David Seely–“Josephus and the Temple”
12:15-12:45 Justin Robinson–“Covenants and Simile Curses”
12:45-1:15 Matthew Brown–“Kingship Initiation Motifs in Ancient Israel”
The Classical World (WSC 3280)
11:15-11:45 Chris Dawe–“The Deification of Romulus”
11:45-12:15 Dr. Bryan Benson–“The Treatment of Temples in Plato’s Republic and Laws“
12:15-12:45 Dustin Simmons–“Emperor as God: Roman Imperial Cult Worship & Implications for Early Christians”
12:45-1:15 Keith Fairbank–“The Eleusinian Mysteries: Greatest Conquest of Demetrios Poliorketes”
Open Session (WSC 3220)
11:15-11:45 Jacob Moody–“Philistine Ritual Artifacts”
11:45-12:15 Mark Wright–“The Cultural Context of Nephite Apostasy”
12:15-12:45 Scott Preston Sukhan Nibley–“Ancient Southeast Asian Temples”
12:45-1:15 Joseph Petramalo–“The Samaritan Temple and Priesthood”
Mt Gerizim site of Samaritan Temple
I hope this gives you something to look forward to! For those planning to attend this event and the Society of Biblical Literature Conference in Boston (Nov. 21-25), that makes for a very busy November this year! As a side note, I just noticed that my friend and former PhD student at Marquette University, Lynne Wilson, will be giving a presentation at SBL in the “Latter-day Saints and the Bible” session. Her topic will be on “Joseph Smith’s Pneumatology Compared with the Bible.” As a topic that I have great interest in, I very much look forward to Lynne’s presentation (and the others as well, of course).
Heavenly Ascents 
I must say, I’m really looking forward to this. Why did they have to triple-up the presentations?! It’s going to be extremely difficult to decide which ones to attend. I hope that they are all published or videotaped so we can get the message of the others we don’t attend. And I’ll finally get to meet you David!
Didn’t Bill Hamblin say that he was putting together a Temple Study Group at the SBL in November? I’d be interested to know what he has planned. Margaret Barker’s symposium on Temple Studies in Oxford in November would be a real treat to attend also. I’d liveblog it all if I could find a way to get out to them. Barker’s symposium is the day after the BYU one. I wonder how much a flight out in the afternoon on November 7th would be… :)
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Is there any chance that these are going to be published at a later date? Even if I could fly from AZ, I’d have a hard time choosing which one to attend.
They say that a selection will be published from the Religious Studies Center, and several others will be printed in Studia Antiqua, the journal of SANE.
So, considering the time difference between Provo and Oxford, it would be near impossible to attend both the SANE symposium on the 7th and Barker’s on the 8th. Too bad. But it’s ok to dream, right?
Thank you all for your comments.
Sorry, Bryce, unless you send your spirit to Oxford while your body is in Provo, I think you’re going to have to miss one of them! :)
It is good that they will be published later because I know I’m going to miss some good ones due to the schedule.
Yes, Dr. Hamblin will be holding the first session of his Temple Studies group at SBL in Boston on Monday, Nov. 24, at 1:00pm. If I end up making it out to Boston (which I plan to), I will definitely be there.
See you all at the conferences!! (As many as we can humanly make it to)
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