Big News and Upcoming Public Speaking Events

Lots of big announcements, lots of good things happening, some things… coming to an end.

I first started graduate school in September of 2001 at the University of Chicago, with courses in Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Akkadian. Life gave me some real detours, and now 23 years later, in a completely different discipline, but drawing on my six years of training in the languages and literature of the ancient Near East, my doctoral dissertation is nearly complete.  I’m sending off final revisions to my advisor, to get approval to send it out to my doctoral committee, with a defense in late June or July.

I will graduate and become Doctor Spackman.

The dissertation title is “The Scientist is Wrong”: Joseph Fielding Smith, George McCready Price, and the Ascendency of Creationist Thought among Latter-day Saints in the Twentieth Century.

In the dissertation, I trace the changes in LDS thought on creationism and evolution from c.1900 to 1980, documenting the heavy influence of Protestant creationists and Joseph Fielding Smith in moving Latter-day Saints towards creationism. Why 1980? That’s when Latter-day Saints became de facto creationists with the publication of the 1980 Institute Manual, which followed on the earlier publication the interpretive aids of the LDS scriptures which presented “no death before the fall” c. 4000 B.C. as quasi-official Church doctrine.

My advisor and outside readers have been very complimentary; it’s a ton of research, will reshape the narrative, and provide a new research backbone for the next 20+ years. Here’s my Table of Contents, without page numbers (because they’re not finalized yet.)

My advisor and committee are confident enough in my progress that they allowed me to walk for Commencement on May 11, where I was Hooded by my advisor and another dissertation committee member. Here’s a picture published by CGU of a few of us PhD candidates waiting in line before the procession in.  (I’m smiling on the inside, I promise.)

I’ve also begun very preliminary talks about book publishing.

Second, as I’m on the verge of graduating and never paying tuition again , at some time in the near future, I will retire the GoFundMe link posted at the bottom of every link to fund my tuition. If you’ve always intended to donate or just want to contribute to a graduation present to say “thank you,” this is your opportunity.  I would note, that in spite of the cost of my years of technical training in money and time, I have always given away my knowledge online (and at Institute) for free, never hidden it behind a paywall or subscription.

Third, I have a lot of travel and public speaking scheduled. Soon, with FAIR Europe in Salzburg, Austria on June 8 and then repeated in Goteborg Sweden on June 15,  I will speak on “Science and Scripture: Friends, Enemies, or Other?” Those will be presented in English with live translation over headphones.

July 13, I’ll give a similar but longer talk in Paris, delivered by me en français, bien sur. The times and places are in the FAIR link.

July 27, I will give a presentation in Seattle; however, in-person attendance is extremely limited, so it will be available over Zoom. (Link to be posted later in summer.) It’s some new thoughts, spun off from my dissertation research. “Scripture, Science, and History-writing: Elder Ballard’s Subtle— but Radical —Reformation.”

In 2016, Elder Ballard gave multiple talks recognizing a significant human element in Church administration. This public recognition represents a remarkable shift already underway for some time by 2016. Dividing Church history into four periods, I look at how the recognition (or lack thereof) of this human element has played a role in Church attitudes, teachings, and curriculum with regards to scripture, science, and history-writing. Understanding this history— how and why these changes happen— helps prepare us for similar changes in the future.

This dovetails a bit with the series I’ve been writing about the new Answering Gospel Questions guidelines, which are fantastic. I hope to finish that one soon.

August 19-23, I will present a four-part series at BYU Education Week on Reading Scripture in Context. Having four hours to present is great; can cover a lot more ground than a 45-minute fireside.

In October, I will present at the online FAIR Church History conference, likely something similar to the Seattle presentation, but with a tighter focus on particular scriptural narratives. This will be online-only, as far as I understand. More details to come.

There may be some others, but that is the current lineup.

Fourth,  I taught volunteer Institute for  a dozen years starting in 2002, took a break for ten, and taught again earlier this year, a class called “Genesis and the Doctrine of Creation.” Students and faculty loved it. I made a page with some of my suggested reading here (still under construction). I will teach a class again in Fall at the ASU-Tempe Institute called, “The Book of Mormon in its Biblical and ancient Near Eastern backgrounds.”  I am also very likely to give a public devotional in fall at the Institute about science and religion, though all details are TBD.

Fifth, some blog announcements.

• I’ve rearranged the page collecting all my videos, podcasts, interviews, etc. so that newest material is on top, which makes it much easier to see.  I’ve cleaned up the code a bit, so it should load faster. Also,  several things were missing including my fireside last fall on “Reading Scripture like a Disciple and a Scholar.” Note also that it has some material dubbed into Spanish!
• In the future, I intend to record myself reading each written post, and post the audio at the bottom of the post. I may also do this for some past posts. This may have to wait for Fall, though, as I’m not traveling with my good microphone.

Whew! That’s a lot.

As always, you can help me pay my tuition here via GoFundMe. *As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases made through links on this page.. You can get updates by email whenever a post goes up (subscription box below) and can also follow Benjamin the Scribe on Facebook.