My Thoughts on the FAIR 2021 Conference

 

Last week I had the phenomenal opportunity to attend the FAIR conference. This was my second year attending, though you could call this my first official conference since I was one of fifteen or so in person attendees last year due to the strenuous circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year was well-arrayed with excellent speakers and a wonderful venue. Wednesday’s session opened up with some speakers from Book of Mormon Central. I personally found Kirk Magelby’s presentation on Hugh Nibley to be extremely fascinating and I learned a lot of interesting details about his life. Other presentations that stood out to me were Brittany Chapman Nash regarding her new book Let’s Talk About Polygamy, and Jeffrey M. Bradshaw’s presentation on the Book of Moses. I have worked closely with Jeff Bradshaw the past year publishing the Book of Moses Essays on Pearl of Great Price Central, and so while I was already familiar with many of the topics he presented, I enjoyed getting to meet him in person and have the wonderful conversation he and I did have and enjoyed his presentation (which also opened up my mind to new insights on the topic as well).

On Thursday I was especially impressed with Jeffrey Thayne’s presentation on worldview apologetics. Thayne argued – and quite well – that oftentimes we might believe the same things but act differently based on those beliefs because we have conflicting worldviews. Oftentimes, those conflicting worldviews influence us and push other worldviews out, which can result in faith crises. Being able to recognize “the waters in which we swim,” we are better equipped to handle these crises when they occur.

I also enjoyed a presentation by Carl Trueman on Thursday regarding his new book, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution. Trueman is an ordained minister for the Orthodox Presbyterian faith, and he argues that Christians need to examine the world and its problems in order to respond appropriately to them, rather than whine and complain. The world is a changing place, and we often times feel out of joint with reality because we see a standard that we crave and a standard the world craves instead. Overall, Trueman is one of the few academics and college professors who publicly defends conservative and Christian values (I mean this as a general statement, since the most publicized news stories generally involve the opposite) and his book is a well looked-forward to read on my bookshelf.

Stephen O. Smoot also presented twice this day, both of which were excellent. I highly recommend his evening presentation for anyone interested in The Book of Abraham and its historical setting.

It would be hard for me to pin down three speakers from Friday that I most enjoyed (as with the other days, but I managed to so far). Michael Ash presented on his new book, Rethinking Revelation and the Human Element in Scripture: The Prophet's Role as Creative Co-Author. Ash argues that scripture is scripture not because it is inerrant or strictly the words of God, but rather because scripture constitutes a consecrated narrative, where God speaks to a prophet in his own language and the prophet uses his worldview to construct a narrative consecrated to the Lord. The Book of Mormon similarly states on the Title Page that it is not inerrant, but warns us to not condemn the things of God despite any errors that come from the human co-author of the scripture narrative.

Keith Erekson gave a presentation on his new book as well, Real Vs. Rumor. Erekson currently works for the Church History Library, and his book and presentation focus on helping readers better learn what source to trust based on historical evidence. Faith promoting rumors, as good as they can be, can similarly leave false impressions of history in our minds that are hard to reconcile with actual history. Erekson gave one example of the mysterious light that is said to have stopped a mobster from beheading the martyred Joseph Smith – based on the historical record and from the sources we have, it appears that account was not accurate and was just that – a rumor.

I enjoyed, as usual, Daniel C. Peterson’s presentation on the witnesses to the Book of Mormon. He gave a similar presentation last year, and recently his movie Witnesses was released in theaters (and still may be in some). A great topic to cover by a great scholar, I enjoyed his finale to the conference.

I am also pleased I got to meet many scholars for the Church. FAIR is always a wonderful event, one I hope to see continue for many more years to come. FAIR continues to be the best place to go to learn from scholars about Church History, Book of Mormon studies, and other topics relevant to Latter-day Saints, and I highly recommend you check them out at their website here and, if ever possible, likewise sign up to attend a FAIR conference.