Category: Liberal Arts

  • Theology and Idolatry

    Jim F.

    Let me present a sketch–though only a sketch and a very broad one at that–of how one might think about theology, both about a problem with it and one of the possible responses to that problem.

  • Someone’s got it in for me, they’re planting stories in the press

    Frank McIntyre

    I see that Slate now puts the odds of Harriet Miers confirmation at 70%. Silly Slate, don’t they know that niche is taken? As I’ve mentioned before, the best bet, literally, is to follow the gamblers. And as of press time, they are betting that Miers has a 3 in 10 chance of making it…

  • Thinking about the Trinity

    Jim F.

    It is hardly news to this crowd that Mormons don’t accept the traditional understanding of the Godhead, the Trinity.

  • Health Care: What to Do?

    Julie M. Smith

    This from a new report by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research Educational Trust: “The average cost of health insurance for a family of four has soared past $10,800 — exceeding the annual income of a minimum-wage earner, according to a survey released Wednesday.”

  • I Shall Be Free

    Frank McIntyre

    I got my bill today and it turns out that there really is something cheaper than a Germanist these days.

  • The happiest place on Earth

    Frank McIntyre

    is Ireland.* Really.

  • Think, Brethren, Think!

    Frank McIntyre

    Brigham Young has many wonderful tidbits scattered throughout his years as prophet. A friend pointed out the following snippet:

  • Ricoeur Dies

    Jim F.

    Paul Ricoeur, Christian philosopher, friend of Emmanuel Levinas, colleague of Jacques Derrida, is dead.

  • Mormons and Markets, II.A: Information and the Failure of the United Order, an Addendum

    Frank McIntyre

    Consider this an addendum to Nate’s post on the catastrophically large amounts of information needed to plan an economy.

  • The Order of Things

    Jim F.

    My discussion of belief and practice has in its background a larger discussion concerning what it means to be religious.

  • Belief and Practice

    Jim F.

    I have been carrying on an argument with Nate on one of his posts (## 5 and 7) and in his responses to one of Blake’s posts ( #23) –sort of.

  • 6.6 Billion

    Frank McIntyre

    According to the IRS, the federal tax code uses up 6.6 billion hours of time for people and businesses to fill out their tax forms. Now, to tell the truth, I sort of like doing my taxes. The numbers are easy to deal with, I often get money back, and it convinces my wife that…

  • The Sway of Philosophy

    Jim F.

    As I see students get excited about Heidegger or Wittgenstein or some other philosopher and the insights into their own lives and the gospel that come with that excitement, I remember my first year or so in graduate school.

  • How much is it worth?

    Frank McIntyre

    Suppose you think the world would be a better place if there were no Walmarts in your town. Then the next question is, suppose you could live in the world where Walmart was not allowed, but you had less money.

  • Toward a Theology of Supermarkets

    Nate Oman

    If you are looking for a morally, philosophically, and theologically fascinating place, I can think of few locations in contemporary life that can compare to the supermarket.

  • Joseph Smith, Justice Frankfurter and the Great Writ

    Nate Oman

    It is time for the post that you have all been waiting for, the one of the place of Mormonism in habeas corpus jurisprudence.

  • The English Nature of the Mormon Constitution

    Nate Oman

    The Church has a certain amount of constitutional law, by which I mean norms and rules that govern and control its institutional structure. What is the nature of this constitutional law? I would submit that the Church ends up being more English than American. Priesthood quorums illustrate why this is so.

  • Petitionary Prayer

    Jim F.

    If we remember that the Father already knows our needs and desires, then the idea of prayer is strange.

  • How Corporations Saved the United Order (kind of)

    Nate Oman

    One of the great advantages of blogging is that you can ramble on regardless of whether or not what you are saying is of any interest to anyone else. Hence this post. I feel it is time that we had the discussion that you have all be waiting for: The one on real estate leases,…

  • Mormon Masculinity

    Rosalynde Welch

    An exercise in historical imagination, if you please: you’re sitting in the tabernacle on a hot Sunday afternoon, Brother Brigham at the pulpit.

  • In Defense of Suing Before the Ungodly

    Nate Oman

    I recently had dinner with a good friend, who, according to his former doctor, is going to hell.

  • LDS Perspectives on the Law: Part II

    Nate Oman

    I think that there are basically three ways in which law and Mormonism can shed light on one another.

  • Plainness and Ornament

    Jim F.

    With many other Christian traditions, we share the admonition to plainness in speech and other aspects of life: “Let all thy garments be plain, and their beauty the beauty of the work of thine own hand” (D&C 42:40)

  • Interpreting Scripture

    Jim F.

    Joe Spencer, Blake Ostler, Larry, and Ivan Wolfe have started talking about the interpretation of scripture on the thread on pride.

  • Pride

    Jim F.

    In Book X of Confessions (chapter 39), Augustine writes about various ways of being proud.

  • Against an LDS Theology of Conscience

    Rosalynde Welch

    I’ve never seen the Disney version of “Pinocchio,â€? but I’ve absorbed by cultural osmosis the image of Jiminy Cricket cheerfully chirping, “Always let your conscience be your guide.â€? Our banal present-day version of conscience—and our uncritical acceptance of the concept as a stable psycho-spiritual category–belies the treacherous history of the idea.

  • Two Questions from Jim F. (2)

    Jim F.

    Second question (go here for the first): This question is more philosophical.

  • Galen, Holmes & Hot Drinks

    Nate Oman

    One of the odder bits of Mormon interpretation is the strange life of “hot drinks.â€? These are the actual beverages forbidden by the Word of Wisdom. As we all know they have come to mean coffee and tea with hot chocolate and Diet Coke forming border cases for some, and no one really objecting to…

  • Nietzsche and Longfellow

    Kaimi Wenger

    I’m neither a Nietzsche-ologist nor a Longfellow-ologist, and it’s likely that this association has been made by others. Still, it’s something that I personally had never noticed till this morning, when it suddenly occurred to me: Nietzsche’s famous charge has already been answered (in a sense) by Longfellow — and the answer came a full…

  • Relics

    Nate Oman

    One of my more prized possessions is a small chunk of limestone. It is about 8 inches long, roughly the size of two fists. Its value lies in the fact that is is a piece of one of the shattered sunstones of the original Nauvoo temple.