David Larsen posted a great notice over at Heavenly Ascents of the upcoming “Temples and Ritual in Antiquity” Symposium that will be held at BYU on November 7th, 2008. It is being presented by the Students of the Ancient Near East (SANE), and will have both students and top scholars presenting papers on the temple in antiquity. In fact, David will be presenting there too, as well as Andrew Miller. I will certainly be going to this symposium! It will be like Christmas morning, a smorgasbord of insight in temple studies.
I will see if I can liveblog the event here on TempleStudy.com. The FAIR Conference liveblog (Day 1 & Day 2) seemed to work out well and was beneficial to many people. Unfortunately, they have three speakers going at once, so we’ll only be able to attend 1/3 of all the exceptional presentations that will be presented. It’s a shame they had to consolidate since all of the presentations are no doubt going to be excellent. It appears that a selection will be “printed in a publication from the Religious Studies Center, and several others will be printed in Studia Antiqua” (link). (I’m still trying to find a way to go to Margaret Barker’s Temple Study Symposium in Oxford the next day, November 8th, and Bill Hamblin’s Temple Study SBL group in Boston a couple weeks later).
[Update 8/19/08: Dan McClellan has posted a nice schedule of the presentations, as well as short bios of the presenters, on his blog here.]
See the poll below (viewable only from the website):
Which presentations interest you most? (Pick one from each time slot, 8 total)
- 9:00-9:30 - Andrew Miller–â€The Mysteries in Pauline Christianity†(11%, 25 Votes)
- 10:30-11:00 - Dr. John Gee–â€Rituals of the Egyptian Temple: An Orientation†(10%, 23 Votes)
- 10:00-10:30 - David Larsen–â€Two High Priesthoods? Evidence for Changes in the Priesthood from First to Second Temple Judaism†(10%, 23 Votes)
- 12:45-1:15 - Matthew Brown–â€Kingship Initiation Motifs in Ancient Israel†(7%, 17 Votes)
- 11:15-11:45 - James Carroll–â€An Expanded View of the Israelite Scapegoat†(6%, 15 Votes)
- 12:15-12:45 - Scott Preston Sukhan Nibley–â€Ancient Southeast Asian Temples†(6%, 14 Votes)
- 11:45-12:15 - Dr. David Seely–â€Josephus and the Temple†(6%, 14 Votes)
- 11:45-12:15 - Mark Wright–â€The Cultural Context of Nephite Apostasy†(5%, 12 Votes)
- 9:30-10:00 - Doug Marsh–â€The Microcosmic Egyptian Temple†(5%, 12 Votes)
- 12:45-1:15 - Joseph Petramalo–â€The Samaritan Temple and Priesthood†(5%, 11 Votes)
- 12:15-12:45 - Justin Robinson–â€Covenants and Simile Curses†(4%, 10 Votes)
- 9:30-10:00 - Dr. Dan Belnap–â€The Role of Scent in the Rituals of Ancient Israel†(3%, 8 Votes)
- 10:00-10:30 - Daniel Becerra–â€The Chrism in Early Christianity†(3%, 8 Votes)
- 10:30-11:00 - Dr. Bill Hamblin–TBA (3%, 8 Votes)
- 10:30-11:00 - Rachel A. Grover–â€The Paradise Garden and Messianic Age Imagery in the 5th to 7th Century Church Floor Mosaics of Jordan†(3%, 7 Votes)
- 11:15-11:45 - Chris Dawe–â€The Deification of Romulus†(3%, 6 Votes)
- 11:45-12:15 - Dr. Bryan Benson–â€The Treatment of Temples in Plato’s Republic and Laws“ (2%, 5 Votes)
- 12:15-12:45 - Dustin Simmons–â€Emperor as God: Roman Imperial Cult Worship & Implications for Early Christians†(2%, 5 Votes)
- 11:15-11:45 - Jacob Moody–â€Philistine Ritual Artifacts†(2%, 4 Votes)
- 10:00-10:30 - Elliott Wise–â€An Odor of Sanctity: The Iconography, Magic, and Liturgy of Egyptian Incense†(2%, 4 Votes)
- 12:45-1:15 - Keith Fairbank–â€The Eleusinian Mysteries: Greatest Conquest of Demetrios Poliorketes†(1%, 3 Votes)
- 9:30-10:00 - Aaron Snyder–â€The Prayer Circle in Early Christianity†(0%, 1 Votes)
- 9:00-9:30 - Donald Parry–â€Eve, Eden, and the Temple†(0%, 1 Votes)
- 9:00-9:30 - Kerry Muhlestein with Alyssa Lewis–â€The Role of Violent Rituals in the Egyptian Temple†(0%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 236

Who is this Andrew Miller hack?
“Temples And Ritual In Antiquity” SANE Symposium At BYU : Mormon Metaphysics
[…] “Temples And Ritual In Antiquity” Symposium At BYU. Sounds interesting. Let’s hope transcripts will be available for those of us with jobs making it hard to attend these sorts of things. […]
Thanks for the link, Bryce. I hope to meet you and many of your readers there at BYU. And I also wish I could make it to Margaret Barker’s conference the next day, as well. If I any of my trees start growing money, maybe I’ll be able to. It doesn’t help that Nov. 7 is my 10th wedding anniversary, as well. My wife would be even more upset if besides taking a trip to Utah I also went to England! I surely hope it is taped or that the papers are published!
Just so everyone is aware, we’ve had three changes to the schedule. Bryan Kerr will no longer be presenting in the Egypt session, but Kerry Muhlestein will take his place with Alyssa Lewis, presenting on the role of violent rituals in the Egyptian Temple. Seth Kohrman has also withdrawn, and Aaron Snyder will take his place, presenting on the prayer circle in early Christianity. Daniel McClellan is the last to withdraw, and he will be replaced by Donald Parry, presenting a paper entitled “Eve, Eden, and the Temple.” An updated schedule is available here:
http://maklelan.blogspot.com/2008/08/sane-symposium-on-temples-and-ritual-in.html