We are very excited to announce The Interpreter Foundation’s Mesoamerica Lecture Series! Each lecture will be broadcast via Zoom and will take place on Wednesday evenings, starting at 7 PM MDT.
The Zoom link for all of the lectures is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84094879926.
There is a YouTube playlist of the lectures at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRMn4gyXMWLvEA27cH63lw2iq0gmLqSCe.
August 21: “Interpreter Foundation Book of Mormon Tour Preview,” Blake Joseph Allen
(owner of Book of Mormon Tours, and tour escort)
Blake describes his lecture as follows: “In several places within the pages of the Book of Mormon, it seems as if Mormon writes as though, in the latter days, we would have a map of the lands described in that great book. Such is not the case. However, we can follow the information from the Book of Mormon and combine that knowledge with modern research to follow the clues to learn more about those special lands. In our tour preview, we will discuss the daily outline of the tour, touch on some of the candidates for Book of Mormon locations such as the land of Nephi, the east wilderness, the land of Zarahemla, including a candidate for the Nephite hill Cumorah where the both the Nephite and Jaredite nations came to an end, and answer any questions about the tour.”
Blake began his traveling days as a young boy of 10 years old when he had the opportunity to visit Mexico City with his father, Dr. Joseph L. Allen, founder of Book of Mormon Tours. Dr. Allen was conducting research in the Museum of Anthropology for his doctoral dissertation on the white god, Quetzalcoatl. That was the beginning of an experience of a lifetime for the Allen family. Blake spent many summers with his family traveling through the country of Mexico where he gained an appreciation and love for the Hispanic people, their culture, and their history.
Blake served a mission in the Chile Santiago South Mission from 1979 to 1981. He earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting at Southern Utah University with minors in both business administration and Spanish. He has been taking tours to Mexico and Guatemala for over 30 years and has taken more than 150 tours. He has a love of the Book of Mormon and enjoys being able to share those feelings with others.
He conducts tours each year to Mexico and Guatemala, the proposed lands of the Book of Mormon. In 2008, he and his father released the second edition of their book, Exploring the Lands of the Book of Mormon.
He and his wife Marion live in Richfield, Utah. They have six children and twenty grandchildren.
Blake says, “The company mission statement is that the Book of Mormon is a true account of two major civilizations that lived in the New World during pre-Colombian times. Its message is to teach of Christ and His Atonement. We believe that the more we understand the history, language, culture, and geography of the Book of Mormon, the more we understand the Book of Mormon. We have chosen Travel and Research to pursue this goal. We invite you to join us in exploring the lands of the Book of Mormon.”
August 28: “The Importance, And Non-Importance, of Knowing the Geography of the Book of Mormon,” Dan Peterson
In this lecture, I will lay out my thoughts on how understanding the geography of the Book of Mormon can help us to better understand it, how such understanding can strengthen the case for the historicity of the Book of Mormon (and, thus, defend and strengthen testimonies), and how geographical models aren’t of ultimate importance.
September 4: “Mesoamerican Writing Systems,” Kerry Hull
Writing has been independently invented five times in human history, and one of those was in ancient Mesoamerica. This lecture exams the various writing systems that developed beginning 3,000 years ago in Mesoamerica. There are more than a dozen attested forms of writing in the region, many coinciding with Book of Mormon populations. I will examine the nature of logographic and syllabic forms of representation in Mesoamerica, the sophistication and aesthetic beauty of their icons, and the different types of attested media on which writing occurred, including on gold. Finally, I will discuss the content and themes of Mesoamerican writing, focusing primarily on Maya hieroglyphic Mayan (since it is the best attested), but also looking at earlier forms that were present in Jaredite times.
September 11: “Mesoamerica and the Book of Mormon Side by Side,” Brant Gardner
One of the reasons that many suggest that there is no archaeological evidence for the Book of Mormon is that they are looking for the wrong things in the wrong places. Rather than looking at the archaeology to see what Old World culture might be there, we should look at the Book of Mormon as a text created in a particular time and place, and find within the text where it reflects the times and places of its origin.
As we place the Book of Mormon side by side with what we know of Mesoamerican history, we can see how incidents in the text have been developed within the context of a Mesoamerican culture. That cultural context explains why Nephi’s people desired a king so early in Nephite history, and why the Nephite society ended at the time it did–and not before or after. In between, multiple correspondences with culture, time, and space support the idea that the Book of Mormon was written by authors who lived in a very specific, and reasonably known, culture and time.
September 18: “Palenque World Tree,” Allen Christenson
The ancient Maya believed that carved stone monuments, painted walls, and woven textils were far more than mere decoration. They were living objects, each bearing a soul. Maya art, therefore, did not mimic reality; it was a sacred reality in itself, a kind of frozen ceremonial act reated and given life by the artist in much the same way that the gods themselves created the world. A spectacular example of this kind of ensouled art from the Classic Maya world is found on the sarcophagus and surrounding tomb chamber of King K’inich Janab’ Pakal I of Palenque, who lived from AD 603-683. The central panel of the sarcophagus lid is dominated by a World Tree, or Tree of Life, similar to other trees in the temple panels of the nearby Group of the Cross. The World Tree was the principal symbol for the power to overcome death. Its blossoms and fruit represent the purity of the human soul. When death took a king—particularly one considered to be a divine being as were Maya rulers—the crisis took on universal proportions, threatening the very existence of the world and life itself. Royal tombs were constructed by the Maya as a desperate attempt to forestall this horror by ritually ensuring the king’s triumph over death and darkness.
September 25: “Potential Volcanic Activity Related to Events in the Book of Mormon,” Benjamin Jordan
The eighth chapter of 3rd Nephi in the Book of Mormon presents a dramatic account of the destruction of many Nephite cities by natural causes. This destruction took place at the time of Christ’s death on the cross in ancient Israel. A wide variety of events, involving earthquakes, storms, landslides, floods, and a cloud of darkness are described as occurring all at the same time. Over the years, several scholars have suggested that these events may have been connected to a volcanic eruption. What is their evidence that supports this idea? This presentation will cover their reasoning, as well as some of the examples that have been used to support their arguments in favor of this idea.
These lectures will help enrich your tour of an already fascinating and historic land. We look forward to joining you all in Mesoamerica!
