Students and community members will gain insights into the Old Testament this weekend at the 38th Annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium.

Each year, the symposium is based on the coming year’s gospel doctrine topic. This year the symposium is entitled, “The Gospel of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament.”

“The purpose is to provide a venue for scholars to share their research and understanding, and to provide a resource for those studying and teaching the gospel,” said Terry Ball, Dean of Religious Education at BYU. 

The classes will begin every hour from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Friday, and from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, in the Joseph Smith and Thomas L. Martin Buildings. Elder F. Melvin Hammond, an Emeritus Seventy, will give the keynote address on the conference theme. Scholars from BYU, BYU-Idaho, BYU-Hawaii, seminaries, institutes and the general LDS community, will teach classes.

“The symposium brings together a knowledgeable group of LDS scholars to talk about important aspects of our scriptures,” said Paul Hoskisson, a Professor of Ancient Scripture who will present at the symposium.

The symposiums began in honor of Sydney B. Sperry, a religious scholar at BYU.

“Sydney B. Sperry was a great gospel scholar and educator, one that helped to legitimize and popularize serious gospel scholarship,” Ball said.

Hoskisson said honoring Sperry is appropriate.

“He was the first Latter-day Saint to get a Ph.D., in areas related to the Bible,” Hoskisson said.
A volume of published papers presented at the symposium will be available so patrons can read the presentations they cannot attend.

According to Ball, a committee of scholars is chosen two years in advance. This committee requests papers from religious scholars throughout the field. Some of the papers are chosen to be presented at the conference.

More information, including a schedule of class events, can be found at rsc.byu.edu/sperry2009.php.