Author: Dave Banack

  • Theology and Conversation

    Dave Banack

    It’s hard for Mormons to find an accessible doorway into theology. David F. Ford’s short book Theology: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 1999) is the first I’ve found to really give me some traction with this elusive subject.

  • Politics versus Sectarianism

    Dave Banack

    I recently finished The Theocons: Secular America Under Seige and put up a short post on it elsewhere. But as I continue to mull it over I have a different idea to float than I discussed in the other post, namely that the rejection of Mitt Romney as a presidential candidate by religious conservatives in…

  • Too Much Truth?

    Dave Banack

    Blogger and journalist Rod Dreher posted an op-ed piece at USA Today, “How much ‘truth’ is too much?” It reviews in passing the author’s personal journey from faithful Catholic journalist reporting on the abuse scandals in the Catholic Church to Orthodox Christian who prefers to avoid repeating that experience a second time in his new…

  • Why Are the Faithful Fleeing?

    Dave Banack

    At the blog Text Messages, an interview with Julia Duin, who is the religion editor at the Washington Times and author of the book Quitting Church: Why the Faithful are Fleeing and What To Do About It. Here are a couple of highlights from the interview.

  • The Mormon Index

    Dave Banack

    A comprehensive bibliography? A portfolio of LDS-owned companies? No, it’s a measure of food-storage activity by preparedness-minded Mormons, as revealed in a feature at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “The Mormon Index is a rising sign of troubled economy.”

  • 12 Questions for the LDS Newsroom, Part Two

    Dave Banack

    This is Part Two of responses provided by representatives of the LDS Newsroom to a set of questions submitted by T&S permabloggers. See Part One for the first six questions and responses.

  • 12 Questions for the LDS Newsroom, Part One

    Dave Banack

    Representatives from LDS Public Affairs who manage and direct the Newsroom site at LDS.org agreed to respond to a dozen questions submitted by the T&S permabloggers. We are pleased to post the first six questions and answers below, with the second set of six to follow shortly. We appreciate the time and effort that went…

  • Welcome to Guest Blogger Kent Larsen

    Dave Banack

    Times and Seasons is thrilled to have Kent Larsen as our latest guest. Kent has been very busy in book publishing in New York City for twenty years and has followed LDS publishing closely for ten years. He has also been posting on arts and media for over three years at A Motley Vision, so…

  • Pioneers and Indians in Utah Valley

    Dave Banack

    Just last week I heard a familiar comment at church: Brigham Young’s policy was to feed the Indians rather than fight them. The actual record of relations between Pioneers and Indians was a bit more complicated, especially in Utah Valley, the watery jewel of early Utah.

  • “Mothers Who Know” Still Spurring Debate

    Dave Banack

    Georgia isn’t the only place with skirmishing this weekend: “LDS leader’s address still causing controversy,” a long article at the Deseret News, recounts the comments of five Sunstone panelists (and one unfortunate commenter) to LDS Relief Society President Julie B. Beck’s October 2007 Conference talk “Mothers Who Know.”

  • Posts You Might Have Missed 5

    Dave Banack

    If you’ve been on a cross-country trek visiting in-laws or golf courses (or both) instead of reading new blogs posts, here are a few good posts you might have missed.

  • Christianity by Continent

    Dave Banack

    I recently read Martin Marty’s The Christian World: A Global History (2007). The subtitle is slightly misleading, as Marty recounts Christian history on a continent-by-continent basis. The last two chapters, covering the modern return of Christianity to Africa and Asia, raise issues of particular interest to the LDS experience: correlation and assimilation.

  • Meet Your Inner Fish

    Dave Banack

    I recently read Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion Year History of the Human Body (Pantheon Books, 2008) by Neil Shubin, a paleotologist and professor of anatomy at the University of Chicago. By coincidence, Jared at LDS Science Review had posted the same book in his “Currently Reading” list. Here is our conversation…

  • Welcome to Guest Blogger Kylie Turley

    Dave Banack

    Let’s have a big round of applause for Craig Harline’s busy two weeks as a guest blogger, then roll out the red carpet for our next guest, Kylie Turley. Kylie teaches honors writing at BYU (so watch those errant commas and inscrutable relative pronouns in your comments!) and is also on the staff of the…

  • Massacre is Just Around the Corner

    Dave Banack

    The Deseret News just ran a lengthy article giving some details on the long-awaited but soon-to-be-released book Massacre at Mountain Meadows, by three LDS historians.

  • Book Review: The Host

    Dave Banack

    by Stephenie Meyers (Little, Brown, 2008). 617 pp. WARNING: major spoilers Stephenie Meyer’s foray into science fiction is a well-deserved best seller, and a great piece of Mormon literature. The romantic interaction between Bella and Edward and Jacob—wait, I mean between Jared and Melanie/Wanderer and Ian—uh, hold on a second…

  • Modern Responses to the Problem of Evil

    Dave Banack

    In a previous post I summarized biblical explanations for the problem of evil or the existence of suffering in the world as presented in Bart Ehrman’s latest book, God’s Problem. In this post I’ll continue with additional explanations from modern and LDS sources.

  • Cycling Through Mormon History

    Dave Banack

    For you, summer might be a succession of beaches, barbeques, and baseball games, but for one young man this summer is an extended bicycle tour of American religious sites. He has posted excellent photos of his visits to the Smith family farm and the Hill Cumorah Pageant that I’m sure you’ll enjoy. If he makes…

  • Posts You Might Have Missed 4

    Dave Banack

    In case you were too busy celebrating Bastille Day to keep up with your required blog reading, here are a few posts to notice.

  • Going for Gold | Olympic Moments

    Dave Banack

    Mormon Times posted a list of LDS athletes who are headed to the Summer Olympics. An impressive group — I hope they all make their respective teams and countries proud in coming weeks.

  • Posts You Might Have Missed 3

    Dave Banack

    While the Bloggernacle was ablaze with commentary on the June 29 First Presidency letter to California Mormons (see interesting updates here and here) plenty of posts on other timely topics were zipping through cyberspace.

  • Why We Suffer

    Dave Banack

    I recently finished Bart D. Ehrman’s latest book, God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question–Why We Suffer (HarperCollins, 2008). Like all Ehrman’s books, it is both informative and troubling.

  • 3:10 to Salt Lake City

    Dave Banack

    They still make Westerns because the harsh, unforgiving West of the 19th century was a land of stark moral choices. 3:10 to Yuma is just the latest example.

  • Posts You Might Have Missed 2

    Dave Banack

    From the hundreds of posts that flow through the Bloggernacle each week, here are a couple of recent gems you ought to read.

  • Mississippi Rising

    Dave Banack

    CNN reported yesterday that 83 out of 99 counties in Iowa have been declared disaster areas — the scale of the flooding is tough to grasp. Those flood waters are now spilling into the Mississippi and moving south. Another service opportunity for the MIY (missionaries in yellow), who are out filling sandbags in Quincy, Illinois.…

  • Posts You Might Have Missed

    Dave Banack

    If you have been too busy with real life to do more than your required online reading here at T&S, here are a few posts you might have missed.

  • Growing Up in Utah

    Dave Banack

    I didn’t. But if you read “The Skeleton in Grandpa’s Barn” and Other Stories of Growing Up in Utah (Signature, 2008) you’ll get an informative glimpse of what it was like.

  • A Bastion of Mormonism

    Dave Banack

    Being mildly depressed about blogging at the moment, I decided to go trolling for a “good news” story to post. Here it is, a story about SVU from the SL Trib: “A bastion of Mormonism in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains.”

  • You Should Write More Letters

    Dave Banack

    You never know what they’ll be worth someday: “Einstein Letter on God Sells for $404,000.”

  • Faith and Fame

    Dave Banack

    Faith and fame aren’t always an easy mix, but Mormons who hit the big time seem to be able to hold it together most of the time. At least that’s the thrust of “How Mormons Deal With Fame” at the LDS Newsroom, discussing, among other names we all recognize, the 17-year-old phenom David Archuleta.