The Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology has its conference on March 22-24 at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. I was supposed to give a paper, but starting up the chocolate business has been far more time consuming than expected. So I'm a no-go unfortunately. Although I am going to do my best to be there. Especially since it's just down the road from me. The schedule can be viewed online.
The talk that looks most interesting to me are Jim Faulconer's "Apocalyptic Theology" which opens up the conference. An other intriguing one is by Mark Hausam of Christ Presbyterian Church on "Why Can't Calvinists and Mormons Understand Each Other? A Look at the Role of Assumptions in Interfaith Dialogue and Debate." Always a good one since I think interfaith dialog is inherently useful. I'm Socratic enough as to find the Other often a window to ourselves. That is as we understand other faiths we find along the way we understand ourselves quite better.
An other one I'm looking forward to is Dennis Potter's "Can Joseph Smith Save Wittgenstein?" I'm as much as intrigued by what Dennis' current philosophical commitments are as much as by the intriguing title. I've largely lost touch with Dennis and am curious as to his current stances. (We were in several classes together at BYU and Dennis invited me to the beginnings of LDS-Phil when he started it up more than 10 years ago now. He's probably more responsible for my continuing interest in philosophy than anyone. When he invited me to LDS-Phil I'd come around to a fairly anti-philosophical view and well strongly in what I like to call my "Russell phase" that verged upon the positivist stance.
An other one I don't want to miss is, "Contemporary Physical Cosmology and LDS Theology" by Hollis Johnson of Indiana University. That's a topic I've written a lot on. So I'll have to reread all the philosophy of grand unified theories I have laying around to prepare. (I'll bring a cheat sheet since I have an admittedly very bad memory)
The keynote address sounds very intriguing. "Jesus, Plan, and Trinity" by Douglas Davies of Durham University. I've no idea what it's about. But since I'm a big proponent of the Nicene Creed posing no particular problem for Mormons I'm interested in what he plans to speak on.
Actually all the talks seem very interesting. This looks like it may be the strongest conference yet for SMPT.
I won't be making it up there this year. Sounds like fun again though.
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