Category: Cornucopia
-
Mormons and the Law, an Email
Yesterday, my father, who is a currator at the Church Museum in Salt Lake City, asked me to respond to an email that he had recieved from a young man that he had met through his work who was investigating the Church. The young man had heard his LDS girl friend declare that Mormons believe…
-
MHA in Vermont
I am planning on attending the MHA Conference in Killington, VT, May 26-29. For details, see here. I see that T&S blogger Kristine is presenting; is anyone else from the Bloggernacle going to be there?
-
The Weekend With Morrie
In keeping with my general practice of coming very late to cultural phenomena, I finally read Tuesdays With Morrie last weekend.
-
An undiscovered continent
Overheard in passing — “No, no, we’re an archipelago. Not like those monolithic group blogs. We’re not Wal-mart or Target; we’re a mere loose association of web sites. It’s not like we have a group web page or anything . . .” . . . Welcome to the dark side, boys.
-
The Problems of the Great Apostasy
One the bed-rock doctrines of Mormonism (to the extent that we have any bed-rock doctrines) is that the church set up by Christ fell away from the true gospel, lost its priesthood authority, and slipped into apostasy. It seems to me that we have two fundamental problems with the doctrine of the Great Apostasy.
-
Nauvoo Trivia
My family moved to Illinois in 1965 when I was seven years old. Every year for vacation we drove back to visit relatives in Utah, and every year on the way we spent a couple of days in Nauvoo and Carthage. I continue to live in Illinois, so I’ve been there at least a couple…
-
Gizoogling Times and Seasons
Do you ever find yourself wondering, “whizzay is a Proclamizzles anyway?” Did you ever want to read lines like “England took tha position that tha marriage relatizzles in tha Celestial Kingdom wizzle be monogizzle not polygizzles”? Or want to hear Nate Oman wax eloquent “In Memory of tha Metaphysizzle Elda”? You’re in luck.
-
Self-Aware Blogging?
There’s a new meme in the bloggernacle, and it’s self-awareness. The folks over at Various Stages are discussing the concept of self-consciousness (with some input from itinerant philosophers). Meanwhile, Ebenezer is wondering (in between some scandalous confessions about kissing) exactly how and why we construct our own bloggernacle identities. Finally, Geoff has a heartfelt post…
-
Book Review Schedule
If you want to review a book, send me the title and your street address. There’s a category called Book Reviews for your posts. When you post the review, I’ll send the link to the publisher. Please don’t sit on the book forever. I’ll keep a running list of everything requested. God on the Quad…
-
Celestial Polygamy
About 18 years ago, Eugene England published his essay, “On Fidelity, Polygamy, and Celestial Marriage,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 20/4 (Winter 1987): 138-54, which has since been reprinted in a couple of different venues. A copy is available at the University of Utah Dialogue archive, here. This article was an exercise in speculative…
-
Richard Dutcher on Mormon Cinema
Noted LDS filmmaker Richard Dutcher recently addressed the Southern California-based Miller-Eccles Study Group.
-
Respite
Sundays are a nice break during the session. Though I like being stopped by constituents to discuss issues in the store or at a restaurant, I used to bristle that every other conversation at church is on some issue the legislature is facing. I thought there should be one place I could just relax.
-
More Nibley Memorials: Online Articles
As a Nibley memorial, BYU Studies has created a page with links to free down loads of Nibley’s BYU Studies articles. Sunstone has a similar page set up. Also, BYU has set up a kind of electronic guestbook for Nibley. They are inviting people to send in their messages of appreciation to hughnibley-at-byu.edu. My understanding…
-
The Proclamation’s Establishment of an Entitlement to a Family
Yes, we’re talking about the Proclamation again. Please set aside, for a moment, gender issues. Please set aside as well the interesting interpretational questions (what is a Proclamation, anyway? what kind of normative force does it carry?) except as necessary to focus on what is, to me, the single most startling and loaded phrase in…
-
Temple Marriage Policy
What would a guest blogging stint be without a little friendly ark steadying? To wit: I propose that the Church do away with its policy that requires a one-year wait between a civil marriage ceremony outside the temple and a temple sealing.
-
Welcome Guest Blogger Kevin Barney
We’re happy to announce another guest blogger, Kevin Barney. Kevin practices public finance law in Chicago. He served a mission in Colorado (’77-’79), received his undergraduate degree in classics from BYU (’82), his JD from the University of Illinois (’85) and an LLM from DePaul University (’90). He has published a couple of dozen articles,…
-
Announcing Steve Urquhart, Guest Blogger
We are pleased to announce that Steve Urquhart, the majority whip for the Utah House of Representatives, will blog with us for the next two weeks, including the final days of the 2005 legislative session. Steve grew up in Houston and graduated from Williams College and BYU Law School. After working at Morrison & Foerster…
-
Plainly, the One Shepherd
John goes out of his way to be sure we notice how various prophecies of Christ were fulfilled. For example, at his crucifixion the soldiers did not break his legs, “that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken” (John 19:36). John does not comment so explicitly on Christ’s description…
-
From the Archives: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Elder McConkie
I don’t think that I am alone among Mormons in having had very strong reactions to Elder Bruce R. McConkie. My sense is that his theological influence is on the wane, although I understand he continues to be very popular amongst some CES types. A while back, I blogged on my own process of making…
-
Fun with Foreign Languages
My children like to cheer for the Yankees. The two major cheers of choice are “Let’s Go Yankees” and “Red Sox Stink.” And recently, my son Sullivan has asked how to say those phrases in other languages. I’ve been able to help him out with Spanish — “Vamanos Yankees” and “Calcetines Rojas Huelen” (translating “Sox”…
-
Snow on the Gates
There’s snow on the Gates in Central Park. A number of photobloggers have captured images of this; see, for example, photos here, or here. The images bring to mind a stanza from a seldom-sung hymn: Pale through the gloom the newly fallen snow Wraps in a shroud the silent earth below As tho ’twere mercy’s…
-
Home Teaching, Hopkins, Haunting
NOTE: I wrote most of this yesterday, but thought perhaps it was too sentimental. This morning it seems horribly appropriate, as I’m praying (and crying) for Geoff’s little boy. Kaimi’s post puts me in mind of a favorite poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins (“golly,” you say, “it doesn’t take much to get her going, does…
-
Prayer Roll
Geoff Johnston’s son is in the hospital after a serious accident. He’s hoping that bloggernackers can add his son to their prayers. I’m happy to oblige, myself, as well as pass this on to our readers.
-
Hugh Nibley, Prophet
That is, truth-teller. Far greater than his scholarship, in my opinion, was his unwavering determination to speak plainly about what he understood to be the plain teachings–the social, economic, political and cultural teachings–of the prophets. By so doing he changed lives, and even, I think, saved souls. Of course, the actual “value” of his interpretations…
-
How Much Message Board Crossover Is There?
I just saw a comment at Amira’s that made me wonder just how much crossover there is between T & S readers and Message Board readers. I know that some regular participants here, like Grasshopper and Clark, also participate on different forums like FAIR Boards or Nauvoo.com.
-
Passage of Hugh Nibley
Clark reports that Hugh Nibley has passed away. I thought we should announce this. I expect that some of my co-bloggers will have more eloquent things to say. I’ll only note that brother Nibley was a great scholar and a great man, and the world of Mormon Studies is smaller without him.
-
The Problem of Evangelical Anti-Mormon Arguments
You’ve all seen them, spoken with them, discussed things with them. They’re your evangelical anti-Mormon friends, neighbors, classmates, co-workers, relatives. (Not to mention those random strangers who accost you as you go to the temple.) We get comments from these folks around here sometimes as well. I’ve always been a little surprised by the types…
-
Blogging as Home Teaching
We don’t read the monthly Ensign message with you. We don’t start and end with prayer, and we’re unlikely to be much help if you need the sideboard moved into the dining room. But we talk together about church topics; we (sometimes!) check up on each other to see how others are doing; we make…