{"id":44388,"date":"2017-09-26T18:59:38","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T00:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=44388"},"modified":"2017-09-27T12:53:10","modified_gmt":"2017-09-27T18:53:10","slug":"new-introduction-book-abraham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/new-introduction-book-abraham.html","title":{"rendered":"A new “Introduction to the Book of Abraham”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Nineteenth-century<\/a>
There is a natural affinity between Toronto (shown here) and ancient Egypt. Both igloos and pyramids, for example, are constructed out of blocks of naturally occurring local substances. This Wikimedia public domain image, taken from Charles Francis Hall\u2019s \u201cArctic Researches and Life Among the Esquimaux,\u201d shows several Egyptologists-in-training enjoying an unusually warm day on the manicured lawns of the new Oopungnewing Graduate Student Dormitory Complex at the University of Toronto\u2019s main campus, located near Frobisher Bay on lovely Baffin Island.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
A cross section plan of an igloo, annotated in what appears to be a late 1960s Canadian dialect \u00a0(Wikimedia CC public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stephen Smoot, who (perhaps as an excuse to come in from the perpetually bone-chilling cold outside) is pursuing\u00a0graduate studies in Egyptology at the University of Nome, Alaska,<\/del>\u00a0the University of Toronto, offers an early take on Dr. John Gee\u2019s forthcoming volume An Introduction to the Book of Abraham<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBook Review: An Introduction to the Book of Abraham\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I was pleased, by the way, to have Dr. Gee drop by this afternoon at the conclusion of my Islamic humanities course. \u00a0He\u2019s been off on sabbatical at the University of Heidelberg, in Germany, and I hadn\u2019t seen him in over a year. \u00a0We had a pleasant chat.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr. Gee was a student of mine in Arabic classes shortly following my arrival in Utah to join the faculty at Brigham Young University. \u00a0We\u2019ve been friends ever since. \u00a0He went off to the University of California at Berkeley, where he completed a master\u2019s degree in Near Eastern studies, and then earned his doctorate in Egyptology from Yale University. \u00a0He has presented and published prolifically in both Latter-day Saint and Egyptological venues. \u00a0 \u00a0I look forward to seeing his new book.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

You can read his 2010 entry on the Mormon Scholars Testify<\/em> site here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the tragic but deeply affecting story of Stephen Smoot \u2014 deeply affecting, anyway, if you have a heart, which I don\u2019t \u2014 see:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can come home now, Steve Smoot!\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA Tear for Stephen Smoot\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally, a couple of thoughts about the ancient Egyptians from someone who had given them a lot<\/em> of thought:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLife is too short to devote years of study to learning that what went on with the ancients was just more of the same. It is too short to let us live both our lives and theirs from day to day\u00a0unless<\/i>\u00a0they have something to add to the story, something we do not have, something quite wonderful and unexpected. Of all people the Egyptians are most likely to supply us with such matter.\u201d<\/strong> \u00a0(Hugh Nibley, Abraham in Egypt<\/em>, ix-x)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe great attraction of Egypt was at all times the exciting combination of religious\u00a0and<\/i>\u00a0scientific thinking, mantic and sophic, intuitive and intellectual, the ancient and the progressive. The solid and visible achievements of the ancient Egyptians bade the observer take their message seriously, as it does us today. The Egyptians, Theophrastus observed, are, on the one hand, the most rationally minded of all people, and yet they live in an ambiance submerged in ancient and recondite religious lore. This tradition is deeply religious and at the same time persistently intellectual\u2014the perfect example, one would say today, of the \u2018bicameral\u2019 blend.\u201d<\/strong> \u00a0(Hugh Nibley,\u00a0Abraham in Egypt<\/em>, 107)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Stephen Smoot, who (perhaps as an excuse to come in from the perpetually bone-chilling cold outside) is pursuing\u00a0graduate studies in Egyptology at the University of Nome, Alaska,\u00a0the University of Toronto, offers an early take on Dr. John Gee\u2019s forthcoming volume An Introduction to the Book of Abraham: \u00a0 \u201cBook Review: An Introduction […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nA new "Introduction to the Book of Abraham"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"      Stephen Smoot, who (perhaps as an excuse to come in from the perpetually bone-chilling cold outside) is pursuing\u00a0graduate studies in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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