Sunstone Magazine
Summary: The mission of the Sunstone Education Foundation is to sponsor public forums for expression of views on religion, religious culture and Mormonism. Under the motto, "Faith Seeking Understanding," we examine and express the rich spiritual, intellectual, social, and artistic qualities of Utah’s religious culture as well as contemporary life. We encourage honest inquiry and responsible exchange of ideas in a manner respectful of all people and that which they hold sacred. In the SunstoneClassic podcast, we will feature each week a presentation given at a previous Sunstone symposium.
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- Artist: Sunstone Education Foundation
- Copyright: Creative Commons
Podcasts:
Dennis Potter presents his paper, "Providing Contraries: an Examination of Mormon “Paradoxism" on August 1st, 2013.
Katrina Barker Anderson and Paul McMullin present their panel, "The Body Unveiled" on August 1st, 2013.
John Hamer presents his paper titled "Neither Protestant Nor LDS, Community of Christ's Unique Understanding of Scripture and the Restoration Ideal" on August 1st, 2013.
Gregory A. Prince gives the plenary session, titled "Pillars of My Faith" on August 2nd, 2013.
Andrea Radke-Moss presents her paper, "Silent Memories; Mormon Women and Sexual Violence in the Missouri War 1838" on August 2nd, 2013.
Though the story of the First Vision was relatively absent from most of the recorded early Mormon discourses of the nineteenth century, the act of telling and receiving the story of the First Vision has become one of the main ways of building a new relationship with the faith. Michael Vinson leads this discussion about contemporary and past Mormons' relationships to the stories of Joseph Smith's First Vision. A review of the various existing versions of the story leads to interactions between the different details of the various versions. The class discusses whether or not it is possible to weave all the versions together into one coherent narrative--and what the meaning of each individual narrative might be. For past episodes of the Sunstone Institute podcast, click here.
What does it mean to ‘know’ that the Book of Mormon is true? Is it necessary to always have a certain testimony? Is there precedent for a practice of Mormonism where the foundation of belief is something other than certain knowledge? Join us and listen in for discussion of these questions and more.
A widely quoted Mormon maxim states that "faith and doubt cannot exist in the same mind at the same time, for one will dispel the other." Yet lived experience suggests that faith may be more like a spectrum where belief and non-belief support and inform each other in a fluid relationship. By failing to acknowledge and affirm the many legitimate variations of faithfulness, we may be artificially constricting the bounds of our religious community and blocking people from the further spiritual growth and development that they would otherwise be able to enjoy within the community. Are the boundaries of "faithful" Mormon religiosity more expansive than what we tend to admit? How can we create safe spaces in the Church for those who want to explore their doubts honestly while also retaining a healthy connection to their faith?
Michael Vinson leads us in an attempt to engage directly with the text of the Savior's words in 3 Nephi 12-15 without necessarily looking through the visor of the entrenched assumptions and expectations that may exist within Mormon culture.
Click here to list to an MP3 recording of Paul Swenson's memorial.
