It's Holy Week! Yesterday was Palm Sunday and we're going to talk about Christ's Atonement with Dr Diedre Green & Dr Eric Huntsman and their new book "Latter-day Perspectives on Atonement." There are various models to talk about Christ's sacrifice and we'll dive deep into that and discuss how grace ties in. Check out our conversation...
https://youtu.be/K6r0Dph5Pa0
Don’t miss our other conversations about atonement: https://gospeltangents.com/lds_theology/atonement/
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Interview
GT 00:39 All right, everybody. Welcome to Gospel Tangents. I am excited to have two amazing scholars of Mormonism. I almost called you Mormon history scholars. Will Bagley got mad at me when I did that. He said he's a scholar of Mormonism. He's not a Mormon history scholar. Anyway, you guys have a great book called Latter Day Saint Perspectives on the Atonement. And so, Deidre, could you go ahead and introduce yourself to our audience and tell us a little bit about yourself?
Deidre 01:10 Sure, I'm happy to. My name is Deirdre Green. I am an assistant professor of Latter-day Saint/Mormon Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.
GT 01:22 Awesome. And, Eric, can you go ahead and introduce yourself?
Eric 01:26 Yeah, my name is Eric Huntsman. I'm a professor of ancient scripture at BYU. I actually started my career in classics. So, from 1994 to 2003, I was in the College of Humanities. I did my PhD at U Penn in Ancient History, Greek and Roman history.
GT 01:42 U Penn, you’re an Ivy Leager.
Eric 01:43 Yes. But I moved to ancient scripture in 2003, mostly because of a growing interest in New Testament studies. So, I specialize in New Testament Gospels, particularly John. I'm also on hiatus. I'm the academic director of the Jerusalem Center, but because of sad current events, our program is on hold. So, we came home in November, although my appointment goes through August of 2025. So, hopefully, we'll get to go back.
GT 02:06 Oh, well, yeah, I'd love to tag along on one of your [trips.] Do you do some tours there in Jerusalem?
Eric 02:14 Between the first stint teaching there in 2011 and then having a chance to go back as Academic Director for a few years, the only way I could find to get back, because it didn't work out for my family to go teach again, was to do some of those tours. I had a little bit mixed feeling, about doing the same tours, because I didn't want to be too priestcraft-y, but I love the Holy Land and I love taking people to the sights and teaching there. So, I periodically do tours but won't until after my appointment is finished.
GT 02:43 Okay. All right. So, did you and Thomas Wayment switch places? Because he's in Classics now. Didn't he used to be in Ancient Scriptures?
Eric 02:50 Yeah, so we kind of have mirror careers. He actually was one of the people who touched base with me when I was thinking about doing New Testament Studies and encouraged me to move to Ancient Scripture. And then we were colleagues there for a number of years. And then he has since, as you know, gone to Classics. But we actually overlapped in Ancient Scripture for a good 10-15 years, I think. So, we did reverse patterns. But no, it's not like we just changed jobs. There was a lot of time in between. I had the chance to work with him in Ancient Scripture. He's a great guy.
GT 03:24 Yeah. I love Thomas. He's awesome. I love to have him on. Glad to have you on for the first time. Now, Deidre, Dr. Huntsman mentioned that he got a graduate degree at Penn. Can you give us a little bit about your academic history?
Deidre 03:37 Sure. I did my undergraduate work at BYU. I majored in philosophy but minored in microbiology and planned to become an epidemiologist.
GT 03:48 Oh, me too.
Deidre 03:51 Of course.
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