Sunstone is pleased to release the preliminary program for the 2008 Salt Lake Symposium. Download the PDF version here. You can also register securely online!

This year’s theme is “The Spirituality of the Rising Generation,” and the symposium will feature about a dozen sessions relating to the fit between today’s Mormonism and the life-worlds of today’s young adults (late teens through early thirties).

Other topics that will receive special attention during the symposium include:

• The legacy of President Gordon B. Hinckley
• Fallout from California’s Proposition 22, and the current battle over marriage rights
• The LDS fallout from Mitt Romney’s bid for the presidency
• LDS responses to the war in Iraq and other world events
• The FLDS situation in Texas
• Responses to Sister Julie K. Beck’s October 2007 General Conference talk, “Women Who Know”
• Managing faith and questions within the church
• Mormonism and race
• Sunstone’s new “Mapping Mormon Issues” initiative (presentations on three of the topics: Book of Mormon historicity, Book of Mormon Translation processes, and Mormon teachings about humans becoming gods)

This year’s evening plenary sessions are:

• Wednesday, 6 August—The 2008 Smith-Pettit Lecture will be given by Professor Wade Clark Roof on the spirituality of the rising generation and inter-generational dynamics within churches.
• Thursday, 7 August—Reflecting on the thirtieth anniversary of the revelation giving blacks the priesthood. Margaret Blair Young and Darius Gray will speak and show clips from the new documentary film, Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons
• Friday, 8 August—”Pillars of My Faith.” This year’s speakers will be outgoing SUNSTONE editor Dan Wotherspoon and Community of Christ apostle Susan Skoor
• Saturday, 9 August—Banquet. Following a delicious meal, we will be delighted to hear from Levi S. Peterson, author of several classic Mormon novels and biographies, and outgoing editor of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. The banquet requires separate registration.

This year’s event features five pre-symposium workshops to be held on Wednesday, 6 August.

There is one full-day workshop (9am to 5:30pm, with lunch break):

W1. Evolutionary Mormonism, with Teresa Whiting

The morning workshop session (9am - 12:30pm) has two offerings:

W2-Writing the Personal Essay, with Phyllis Barber
W3-Wakening into the Spirit: The Art and Practice of Meditation, with Philip G. McLemore

The afternoon session (2pm - 5:30pm) also has two offerings:

W4-Four Types of Spirituality, with Susan Skoor
W5-Breathe Life into Your Life Story: Write a Story People Will Want to Read, with Dawn and Morris
Thurston

Workshops require separate registration: $25 for one session; $40 for both sessions or the full-day workshop.