The Mormon Theology Seminar will host a two-day conference, ”Opposition in All Things: Mormon Perspectives on the Fall,” at Utah Valley University on June 7-8, 2013. Read more »
LDS Newsroom
- Family and Church Leaders Eulogize Frances J. Monson as One Who “Deeply Loved” May 23, 2013
- Church Responds to Boy Scouts Policy Vote May 23, 2013
- Bible Brought to Life on Ancient Jerusalem Set May 22, 2013
- Church Working With Oklahoma Officials to Provide Support in Wake of Tornadoes May 21, 2013
- Funeral Services for Frances J. Monson Announced May 20, 2013
- Frances J. Monson, Wife of President Thomas S. Monson, Passes Away May 17, 2013
- Elder Dallin H. Oaks Honored for Championing Religious Freedom May 16, 2013
- Mormonism in the News: Getting It Right| 15 May 2013 May 15, 2013
- Rendering of Meridian Idaho Mormon Temple Now Public May 15, 2013
- Mormons Around the World: Country Newsroom Websites |14 May 2013 May 14, 2013
Theoscatology
We need bodies to become like God. But bodies are organs of passing. Read more »
To LDS Seminary Teachers Everywhere
My husband and I are both graduates of LDS seminary. I, by the skin of my teeth after a lingering bout with mononucleosis and a pile of home study booklets. Sam, after being on seminary council and a master seminary bowler. So far our children have attended 18 total... Read more »
Review: The Fading Flower & Swallow the Sun
Mahonri Stewart recently released two of his plays–The Fading Flower and Swallow the Sun–together in a single volume. I found both of them to be so compelling, that I’m... Read more »
Revelation
My previous post on the upcoming BYU New Testament Commentary series was so well received I have decided to do some follow-up posts discussing individual books. I’ll start with... Read more »
Literary DCGD #20: From The Arcana of the Infinite
It seems like a few verses in the D&C are all we know about the life after this. Lesson 20 of the Gospel Doctrine manual covers D&C 76, 131,... Read more »
The Approaching Zion Project: What is Zion? A Distant View
Another confession: I had a really hard time with this chapter. And it's not just because I read it sitting in an airport waiting for a plane that was... Read more »
Why I’m glad Heavenly Mother is as yet uncorrelated
There is something creative about getting to know God: to recognize the infinite attributes of God and to express that ineffability in testimony and story, art and song. Sometimes,... Read more »
Giving lectures in Paris on “The Bible from Yesterday to Today”- Help me narrow my topics.
I’ve been asked to give a series of three 1-hr lectures on the Bible in French, to be held at three different LDS chapels in Paris, beginning in mid-June.... Read more »
Rereading A Prayer for Owen Meany
I never re-read books, but I decided to read this one, twenty-two years after I first read it, because “he is the reason I believe in God; I am... Read more »
Literary Lorenzo Snow #10: The Temple of God at Nauvoo
We tend to talk about the benefits of the temple more than the obligations. In the temple we may gain knowledge, revelation, be sealed to our families, and give... Read more »
Literary DCGD #19: Spirit Memories
How thin is the veil? Might we remember bits of our experience there? Could a melody we heard there be familiar to us here? (assuming we even heard melodies... Read more »
Chastity and Virginity
I have been trying to think through Elizabeth Smart’s remarks about chewed up gum and the way that we teach chastity to our youth. I have never heard the... Read more »
How Things That Were Never Going to Change Have Sometimes Changed Anyway
In March at BYU I gave a talk, or more accurately for a guy who can barely use Power-Point, a multi-media extravaganza, involving at least 10 non-fancy slides with... Read more »
Stewards of Prudence and Altruism
Prudence and altruism combined allow us to delay personal gratification or even make sacrifices for the benefit of future people who have not yet been born. The hearts of... Read more »
The Approaching Zion Project: Our Glory or Our Condemnation
Now that I've read my first chapter of Approaching Zion, a couple more caveats before we get started. First, I'm not going to bother summarizing what Nibley said. Instead,... Read more »
A Canning Statement from the Church
Given the rumors circulating about closing canneries and the reasons for doing so, Times and Seasons asked the Church’s PR department for a statement and received the following: The... Read more »
The Gold Coin; or, how we should teach our youth about their worth
Object Lesson: The Gold Coin Supplies: Either a $1 coin (such as the recently issued gold coin) or a half-dollar coin. A small bag of dirt. A few miscellaneous... Read more »
Post Number 6,000
I just noticed that this is Times and Season’s 6,000th published post. Congratulate us or excoriate us as you wish. Read more »
Book Review: L. Tom Perry: An Uncommon Life
L. Tom Perry: An Uncommon Life: Years of Preparation by Lee Tom Perry. Read more »
Literary Lorenzo Snow #9: Memento
The sacred and eternal nature of families is regularly taught and believed among Mormons today. But it wasn’t seen as quite as obvious to Church members in the middle... Read more »
Literary DCGD #18: The Temple of God
We are a temple-building people. Today we are more removed from the process than ever. Where Mormons once donated money, materials, time and effort to building temples in Kirtland,... Read more »
Can we can?
There’s a flurry of facebook posts flying today, based on discussions at right wing survival websites about an alleged decision by the LDS church to stop canning in the... Read more »
BYU’s New Testament Commentary
A website for the upcoming BYU New Testament Commentary series has popped up. The short announcement on the main page promises “a multi-volume commentary on the New Testament along... Read more »
An Open Letter to Mormon Thinkers
Last week I published something in a prominent series at a first-rate university press. It is, I think, the most rigorous, speculative, and systematic attempt at a professional take on Mormon... Read more »
Joseph Smith’s Study of the Ancient World – Online!
The 2013 Church History Symposium now has most of the videos from the conference online (you can see the lineup for the conference here). I think the conference, it’s organization and... Read more »
The Approaching Zion Project: Prologue
I have a confession to make: I've never read Hugh Nibley's Approaching Zion. I'm serious. I mean, I bought it years ago, probably before my oldest daughter was born.... Read more »
Tattooed
On his deathbed, Queequeg asks the ship’s carpenter to fashion him a burial canoe. So fashioned, Queequeg demands to lay himself the length of it, testing its virtue. Then,... Read more »
Another Post about Mormons and Science Fiction
The topic of Mormons and science fiction seems to crop up with decent regularity every couple of years, and with the recent release of the film adaptation of The... Read more »
Literary DCGD #17: A Satire on Avarice
Its hard to find poetry about tithing! I suppose since tithing wasn’t emphasized as much by the Church before the beginning of the 20th century, Mormon poets didn’t focus... Read more »
Conferences and Events
- American Society of Church History Annual Meeting
- American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting
- Communal Studies Association Annual Meeting
- Society for the Scientific Study of Religion/Religious Research Association
- Western History Association Annual Conference
- Utah State Historical Society Annual Meeting
- Center for Studies on New Religions
- Mormon History Association
- European Mormon Studies Association Conference
- Sunstone Symposium