Category: Features

  • Notes from All Over – through June 14

    Comment here on the Notes From All Over for the past week.

  • The Revisionist Reformation

    A favorite perennial topic of discussion is the ever-elusive distinction between church culture and doctrine (or officially sanctioned practice or attitude). 

  • Times & Seasons Welcomes James Olsen

    Times & Seasons is excited to introduce our latest guest blogger James C. Olsen.

  • Notes from All Over – through June 7

    Comment here on the Notes From All Over for the past week.

  • Reflections on the Islamization of Knowledge

    The historical grandeur of Islamic intellectual achievement has been both a blessing and a burden for modern Muslims. There is, on the one hand, a great and justified sense of pride in the accomplishments of the giants of the tradition—the Sibawaihs, Ibn Sinas, Ibn Haythams, and Al-Ghazalis.

  • Notes From All Over – thru May 24

    Comment here on the Notes From All Over for the past week.

  • Old School Scripture Mastery

    Although Moroni was anxious about the Nephites’ “weakness in writing,” he does note that the Nephites were able to “speak much,” and that their spoken words were “powerful and great” (see Ether 12:23–27).

  • 12 Questions for Marvin Perkins, Part Four

    Here is the last installment of our 12 Questions with Marvin Perkins, comprised of Brother Perkins’ responses to our last two questions. We’d like to thank Brother Perkins for the time and effort he’s put in to giving us a set of very substantive and thought-provoking responses.

  • Notes From All Over – thru May 24

    Comment here on the Notes From All Over for the past week.

  • 12 Questions for Marvin Perkins, Part Three

    Here is Part Three of our 12 Questions with Marvin Perkins, comprised of Brother Perkins’ responses to our next five questions. See Parts One, Two, and Four for our introduction of Brother Perkins and his responses to our other questions.

  • Tales from My Fathers

    Tales from My Fathers

    My paternal grandfather, Marc Ricks, is 98 years old. He was born in September 1910, just a few months after President Hinckley.

  • 12 Questions for Marvin Perkins, Part Two

    Here is Part Two of our 12 Questions with Marvin Perkins, comprised of Brother Perkins’ responses to our next four questions. See Parts One, Three and Four for our introduction of Brother Perkins and his responses to our other questions.

  • Times & Seasons Welcomes Robert Ricks

    Times & Seasons is happy to introduce our next guest blogger, Robert Ricks. 

  • Thank You Guest Bloggers

    Times & Seasons would like to thank guest bloggers Rory Swenson and Bruce Webster for their contributions over the last few weeks. We have more great guest bloggers in the works, so stay tuned.

  • 12 Questions for Marvin Perkins, Part One

    Marvin Perkins has graciously agreed to answer a few questions from Times & Seasons. Brother Perkins is a Latter-day Saint music producer who is currently the Public Affairs Co-chair for the Genesis Group and who has worked to nurture understanding between African Americans and Latter-day Saints and attack misconceptions. As part of this effort, he…

  • Notes From All Over – thru May 17

    Comment here on the Notes From All Over for the past week.

  • Uber-Deep and Important Doctrinal Questions

    After reading the post from a couple days ago about optimal tithing rates, I started to think about some of the unanswered questions that have come to mind while I’ve been playing Brick Breaker in Elder’s Quorum pondering the mysteries of the Gospel.  It seems like this audience might be able to offer some differing…

  • Notes From All Over – for week ended May 9

    Comment here on the Notes From All Over for the past week.

  • Brotherhood. Friendship.

    Key to this is our ability to strip ourselves of pretense; to lay bare our faults, our doubts, and our struggles. It is a refreshing – and frightening – experience to be completely candid, to trust the others within the group to listen and respect our experiences, even as they candidly respond and criticize. It…

  • What Does My Lack of Personal Trials Say About Me?

    I’ve been thinking long and hard about what I should talk about in my inaugural post on this blog.  Quite honestly, when I agreed to do a stint as a guest blogger, I thought it would be pretty easy.  But, lately, it seems that all my Mormonism-related thoughts have been trite and meaningless.  For example,…

  • Times & Seasons Welcomes Bryan Hickman

    Even as our current guest bloggers, Rory Swenson and Bruce Webster, are still wrapping up their guest posting stints, Times & Seasons is happy to introduce our next guest blogger, Bryan Hickman.

  • Notes From All Over — for Week Ended 2 May

    Comment here on the Notes From All Over for the past week.

  • Musings on Drifting Faith

    The question becomes not if our policies and teachings will adapt, but rather how. And further, what statements are we making today – strident and bombastic – for which we will be judged tomorrow? Statements and positions that our future generations will be pressed to reconcile, to explain, or to disavow?

  • Four sources of the Apocalypse

    With the past two months, I have read — for various reasons — four different novels laying out apocalyptic events within the United States. Here are the novels, in the order I read (or re-read) them, and with the reasons why I read them: — Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (1977): a…

  • Times & Seasons Welcomes Bruce Webster

    Even as our current guest blogger continues to post, Times & Seasons is happy to welcome Bruce Webster as our next guest blogger.

  • Speaking of Faith

    Religion can be divisive. We read of historical confrontations and we witness the divisiveness in the world around us – between major world religions and among the sectarian branches they foster. But while religion and faith claims can be divisive, it needn’t be this way. There are ways to approach faith and differences of faith…

  • The Ninety-Nine and the One

    It isn’t easy to be inconvenienced, especially when we are asked to tolerate the views or the actions of the other, and love them too! It would be easier to ignore them, cast them out, keep things easy and pure. But that isn’t the plan.

  • Times & Seasons Welcomes Rory Swensen

    We’d like to give a warm, hearty welcome to Rory Swensen, who has agreed to guest blog here for a week or two.

  • Time to Reconsolidate?

    I was only a teenager when the new-fangled consolidated schedule hit the church fashion scene.

  • The Gospel of Gluttony and Sloth

    Some years ago, I noticed a trend among female general auxiliary leaders. With few exceptions, they all lean (no pun intended) to the slimmer side of the LDS population at large (ahem). Much as missionaries have a particular grooming code, is there an unwritten appearance requirement for “upper-level” service?