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Abraham
Seminar
Alma 32
Seminar
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Alma 32 Seminar - Podcasts Listen to downloadable podcasts of the papers delivered at our "An Experiment on the Word: Reading Alma 32" conference held at Brigham Young University on September 19, 2008. Also, listen to a podcast in which Joseph Spencer, James Faulconer, and Adam Miller discuss in general the aims of this same conference. The participants discuss both the unique features of this conference as an experiment in collaborative theology and the long term goals of the Mormon Theology Seminar. Alma 32 Seminar - Complete Text of Seminar Discussions The complete text of the Alma 32 seminar's weekly discussions (from May-June 2008) is now available as a 200+ page downloadable pdf file. Involving all six of the seminar's participants, the weekly discussions examine Alma 32 verse by verse and line by line. The discussions are lively, exploratory, and frequently produce striking and original insights into the text's rich range of possible meanings. Mission Statement The Mormon Theology Seminar is an independent, scholarly forum committed to organizing short-term, seminar-style collaborations that consider specific questions about Mormon theology through close readings of foundational Mormon texts. As a part of this work, the Seminar also publicly archives the findings of these study groups. The Seminar’s primary aim is to create a common space where theological work can be undertaken in a way that is both concentrated and collaborative. In this way, the Seminar means to avoid two difficulties that traditionally plague such scholarly work. On the one hand, focused theological work is typically an individual affair and the spaces that customarily support this work tend to reinforce isolation and idiosyncrasy. For instance, the writing of conference papers and journal articles tends to be relatively private work that only briefly flares in the common space of a presentation or publication. On the other hand, common spaces typically conducive to spirited discussion and collaboration generally tend to preclude focused and sustained concentration. Exchanges on blogs and discussion lists, for example, while often invigorating and instructive, consistently lack focus and resolution. In short, collaboration tends to diffuse concentration, and vice versa.
2007 Seminar,
Summary Report Question 1—If Abraham is the paradigm of fidelity to God, then what are the essential elements of this faithful relationship? In the fourth chapter of his epistle to the Romans, the apostle Paul explores in detail how Abraham models a faithful response to God’s grace. Here, Paul sweepingly refers to Abraham as “the father of all them that believe” (4.11). What is it about Abraham’s relationship with God that marks him as “the father of the faithful”? For Paul, the key to this understanding of Abraham is Genesis 15.6. As Genesis 15 opens, we are told that “the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision” (15.1) and that through this word God has renewed his promise that, despite Abraham’s old age, he would yet have children as numberless as the stars in the heavens. Abraham’s response is definitive: “And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness” (15.6). It is Abraham’s persistent willingness to believe in God’s ability to fulfill an apparently impossible promise that sets him apart as the father of the faithful. |
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Last Updated 4 August 2008