Category: Liberal Arts

  • From the Mouth of Two or Three Surveys

    Stephen C

    My post a few days ago looked at whether members of the Church in the US reported a lower likelihood of identifying as “divorced” than non-members in Pew data.  However, afterwards some friends raised valid concerns about the fact that remarried divorcees would have identified as “remarried.” Therefore, if Latter-day Saints were remarried at a higher…

  • Are Latter-day Saint Marriages More Stable?

    Stephen C

    Various researchers have addressed this question with older (pre-2010 data), and have shown that in general Latter-day Saints have lower divorce rates, but what about more recent years? The largest (relatively) recent survey of Latter-day Saints is the 2014 Pew Religous Landscape Survey which included 661 Latter-day Saints, allowing for a simple comparison of marital status. …

  • Is Church Growth Declining?

    Is Church Growth Declining?

    Stephen C

    I’m a Church growth amateur; occasionally I enjoy dropping by Matt Martinich’s blog to look at the latest temple predictions, and I’ll often skim through headlines about the latest data point on Church growth and what it means. However, for some time now I’ve been suspicious that we’re reading way too much into the natural…

  • Is the Church Replacing Itself in the United States? Population Momentum and its Capacity to Hide Decline

    Is the Church Replacing Itself in the United States? Population Momentum and its Capacity to Hide Decline

    Stephen C

    The following is Stephen Cranny’s fourth guest post here at Times & Seasons. Stephen Cranney is a Washington DC-based data scientist and Non-Resident Fellow at Baylor’s Institute for the Studies of Religion. He has produced over 20 peer-reviewed articles and six children According to conventional wisdom, the Church in the United States and other developed …

  • Are Half of All Church Members in the US Single?

    Are Half of All Church Members in the US Single?

    Stephen C

    The following is Stephen Cranny’s third guest post here at Times & Seasons. Stephen Cranney is a Washington DC-based data scientist and Non-Resident Fellow at Baylor’s Institute for the Studies of Religion. He has produced over 20 peer-reviewed articles and five children. I was surprised at the Church’s seeming statement (I’ll discuss why it was “seeming”…

  • What do people look up about the Church on Wikipedia?

    Stephen C

    The following is Stephen Cranny’s second guest post here at Times & Seasons. Stephen Cranney is a Washington DC-based data scientist and Non-Resident Fellow at Baylor’s Institute for the Studies of Religion. He has produced over 20 peer-reviewed articles and five children. When somebody is looking up material about the Latter-day Saint movement on their own,…

  • Machine Translation

    Jonathan Green

    Two attitudes about translation are on my mind. One is about Joseph Smith: “Seeing words appear in a seer stone is magic, not translation. Translation is when you have the equivalent text in a foreign language, like Google Translate.” The other attitude is not uncommon among translators and translation clients: “Google Translate isn’t translation. It’s…

  • Notes on Book of Mormon Philology. Vb4. The utility of philology: Jacob and Sherem

    Jonathan Green

    Imagining the Book of Mormon as a complex work reflecting numerous steps of compilation and abridgment helps explain some curious features of the encounter with Sherem in Jacob 7.

  • Notes on Book of Mormon Philology. Vb2-3. The utility of philology: Nephite origins

    Jonathan Green

    Thinking of the Book of Mormon as the result of a series of textual accretions and combinations might help make sense of how curiously overdetermined the account of Nephite origins is.

  • Notes on Book of Mormon Philology. V.The permissibility and utility of philology for studying the Book of Mormon

    Jonathan Green

    Is philological deliberation useful for studying the Book of Mormon? Is it even permitted?

  • Notes on Book of Mormon Philology. IV. The Puzzle of 3 Nephi

    Jonathan Green

    Why is 3 Nephi, which records the central event in the history of Nephite salvation and destruction, located between Helaman and 4 Nephi?

  • Notes on Book of Mormon Philology. IIIc. The source structure of the Book of Mormon

    Jonathan Green

    If you trace the history of a text from earlier manuscripts to later ones, it’s not unusual for the text to be extended in various ways.

  • A Lake of Fire and the Problem of Evil

    A Lake of Fire and the Problem of Evil

    Chad Nielsen

    I remember talking to an atheist on the riverfront walk in Dubuque, Iowa one day while serving my mission.  He told my companion and me that he couldn’t believe in God after some of the things he had seen, and went on to describe (in a fair amount of gruesome detail) visiting a Catholic church…

  • Is Activity Increasing Among US-based Latter-day Saints?

    Stephen C

    The following is a guest post from Stephen Cranny. Stephen Cranney is a Washington DC-based data scientist and Non-Resident Fellow at Baylor’s Institute for the Studies of Religion. He has produced over 20 peer-reviewed articles and five children. I calculated the percent of people who self-identify as Latter-day Saints who are “active” (attend Church about…

  • Notes on Book of Mormon Philology. IIIb note 1. A note on the uniformity of the Golden Plates

    Notes on Book of Mormon Philology. IIIb note 1. A note on the uniformity of the Golden Plates

    Jonathan Green

    Mark Ashurst-McGee asks about the uniformity of the Golden Plates in eyewitness accounts, even though they contain both Mormon’s abridgement and Nephi’s small plates, and this is in fact genuinely weird.

  • Notes on Book of Mormon Philology. IIIa. Nephite literacy

    Jonathan Green

    Unless someone gets lucky with a spade or a metal detector, the full extent of Mormon’s sources will remain unknown. To keep even tentative answers on the side of plausibility rather than fantasy, how we think about Mormon’s sources should be informed by any information we have about Nephite literacy and textual culture.

  • Notes on Book of Mormon philology. II. What did Mormon know?

    Jonathan Green

    The logical place for a philological approach to the Book of Mormon to begin is with Mormon, its eponymous editor, and his sources. How much did Mormon know about the Nephites, and what kind of records did he have to work with?

  • Notes on Book of Mormon philology. The philological instinct

    Jonathan Green

    When I look at recent studies of the Book of Mormon, the biggest deficit I see is the lack of instinct for philology.

  • The Author and the Congressman

    The Author and the Congressman

    Michael Haycock

    The Author In my childhood, I watched my evangelical classmates devour the Left Behind series, curious what a Mormon analogue would look like. Lo and behold, in 2003 Deseret Book published a novel titled The Brothers. Befitting his history as a military pilot, the author had previously focused on military techno-thrillers, and the book series…

  • Quodlibet: Vaccination

    Quodlibet: Vaccination

    Jonathan Green

    Whereas disease, as now with COVID-19, causes death to many and harm to many more, and worsens poverty and hunger even among those it does not strike directly, and causes fear in those who await infection and its consequences, and inflicts sorrow and grief on those who lose family and beloved friends; while Jesus, in…

  • How Should LDS Christians Give to Charity?

    William Barlow

    It’s a heart wrenching decision.  A beggar asks you for money.  You remember the words of King Benjamin: “Ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain.”[1]  You also remember Christ’s commandment to feed the hungry, take in the stranger, and clothe the naked.[2] At the same time, you…

  • Is it a Sin to Binge Watch Netflix?

    William Barlow

    We all know that the defining sin of the Nephites was pride.  But what about the defining sin of the Lamanites?  From the very beginning of the Book of Mormon, Nephi focuses on one particular vice.  “[A]fter they had dwindled in unbelief” the Lamanites became “full of idleness and all manner of abominations.”[1] He later…

  • Pagans and Christians in the City (2/2)

    Jonathan Green

    Don’t bring immanent evidence to a transcendent argument.

  • Voir dire

    Voir dire

    Jonathan Green

    Voir dire, from Norman French, is pronounced “jury selection” by normal people, but I had always stayed one step ahead of the law and never seen it first hand.

  • Remembering Clark Goble

    Jonathan Green

    This hit my inbox this afternoon: In case you hadn’t heard, Clark Goble just passed away from a stroke.

  • Muslim-Mormon Dialogue at Georgetown: The Perks of Being Peculiar

    Muslim-Mormon Dialogue at Georgetown: The Perks of Being Peculiar

    James Olsen

    I know that I am a better Mormon on account of Muslim friends and hope that they will be able to say the same of me.

  • Review: Foundational Texts of Mormonism

    Review: Foundational Texts of Mormonism

    Clark Goble

    Here’s the shortest review possible. If you’re even moderately interested in Church history or theology or even just in close reading of scripture you should get Foundational Texts of Mormonism. If it’s not already in your library, ask for it for Christmas.

  • Trials, Tribulations, and a Movie: An LDS-themed Discussion of the Coen Brothers’ A SERIOUS MAN

    Trials, Tribulations, and a Movie: An LDS-themed Discussion of the Coen Brothers’ A SERIOUS MAN

    Bryan Hickman

    A well-known axiom in both life and storytelling states that the matters we find most personal are also the most universal. Whether it’s film, literature, or some other medium, stories with the most specific and distinctive settings and points of view are usually those an audience will find most relatable. In the words of Robert…

  • Review Essay: “The Power of Godliness: Mormon Liturgy and Cosmology”: Materiality and Performance

    Review Essay: “The Power of Godliness: Mormon Liturgy and Cosmology”: Materiality and Performance

    Rosalynde Welch

    Like a paring knife to a grapefruit, Jonathan Stapley’s new book on the history of Mormon cosmology is slim, sharp, and swift to carve through pith, serving up elegant wedges of history. The Power of Godliness: Mormon Liturgy and Cosmology (Oxford, 2018) traces the evolution of ritual practice in Mormonism, including priesthood ordination, sealing rites,…

  • Defiantly Turning the Other Cheek

    Clark Goble

    On Twitter last week in the aftermath of the whole Porter situation someone mentioned the issue of turning the other cheek. Now first off I don’t think in any legitimate interpretation of turning the cheek it means submitting to abuse particularly spousal abuse. I know there is sadly a strong thread in the Jewish, Christian,…