Category: News and Politics

  • Guest Book Review: The Early Prophets by Everett Fox

    Guest Book Review: The Early Prophets by Everett Fox

    This guest book review was written by frequent commenter Terry H.    

  • Nominate the 2014 Mormon of the Year

    It is time, once again, to select the Mormon of the Year!

  • Hypersensitivity and Trolls: A Codependent Dysfunction

    Hypersensitivity and Trolls: A Codependent Dysfunction

    Introduction My first posts at Times and Seasons were about epistemic humility, which is the awareness of the limits of knowledge. One of the common responses I got at the time was to ask how conviction was compatible with such an emphasis on uncertainty. The quote I led with (“The wise man doubts often, and…

  • My Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith

    My Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith

    I was asked to share a brief testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith in sacrament meeting last week. To the best of my recollection, this is what I said:

  • Book Review: Jesus the Christ Study Guide

    Book Review: Jesus the Christ Study Guide

     Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and Thomas A. Wayment, Jesus the Christ Study Guide  

  • All things testify of Joseph Smith: on the ethics and theology of faith-promoting legends

    All things testify of Joseph Smith: on the ethics and theology of faith-promoting legends

    While faith should be founded on truth rather than fiction, we shouldn’t overlook how devotional legends reflect creative and democratic processes of theology-formation. Here, for example, is a faith-promoting legend that might have been

  • Recommended NT Resources, part 3: History and Commentary

    (Cross-posted at Benjamin the Scribe.) First, Amazon is offering 30% off any physical book you buy for the next two days, by entering HOLIDAY30 at the checkout. Great time to pick up that hardcover Jewish Study Bible,  Jewish Annotated New Testament, NRSV, or similar “expensive” hardcover you can’t get otherwise. Amazon link to the details. Short list.…

  • Day 2 of Gratitude

    Day 2 of Gratitude

    Prayers of Gratitude—Sunday, November 9 . . . was the annual Primary Program, one of my favorite Sundays of the year. Though many find this day difficult, I simply have to smile at the unpredictable entertainment, as well as the sincere belief and sincere silliness of little children. Moreover, there is the pleasure of watching…

  • When to Disobey

    When to Disobey

    I’ve been having some interesting conversations about the high cost of membership in the Church. We believe, in general, that the cost of being a Mormon is high and that this is a good thing. Sacrifice leads to faith. We pour a lot of time and a lot of energy into the Church, and this…

  • Short Musings on the Wu-Tang Clan, Ezekiel, and Church Curriculum

    Short Musings on the Wu-Tang Clan, Ezekiel, and Church Curriculum

    Yesterday at a restaurant with my parents, I heard a nice bluesy instrumental over the audio system. I’m a blues fan, and liked it so much I flagged down the waitress to ask what it was. She went to check, and reported to our mutual surprise, that that particular song was “Slow Blues” by the Wu-Tang…

  • Announcing the BYU & Maxwell Institute 2015 Summer Seminar

    Announcing the BYU & Maxwell Institute 2015 Summer Seminar

    UPDATED: The original version of this post didn’t include the link to the application form. That link was added on Dec 10, 2014. In the summer of 2015, the Neal A Maxwell Institute at Brigham Young University, with support from the Mormon Scholars Foundation, will sponsor a summer seminar for graduate students, CES educators,  and…

  • My morning with McBaine and Wiman

    As happens every now and then, I had a furious, fortuitous conjoining that so filled the boughs with fruit that they now creak and threaten to break. And language—especially quick language—isn’t likely to succeed in conveying the experience. What follows is a quick, momentary set of notes. But I don’t want to let it pass…

  • The Teachings and Doctrine of the Book of Mormon, Take Five

    And now we hear from Joe Spencer:

  • The Teachings and Doctrine of the Book of Mormon, Take Four

    Today’s entry was written by Grant Hardy:

  • Two Thoughts on President Eyring’s Talk at the Vatican Colloquium

    Two Thoughts on President Eyring’s Talk at the Vatican Colloquium

    You can read the transcript here; two quick thoughts:

  • Family Home Evening: Repentance

    Family Home Evening: Repentance

    I think I’ve kvetched before about how hard it is to plan meaningful FHEs with older kids. 

  • The Teachings and Doctrine of the Book of Mormon, Take Three

    This entry is a bit different because it is a sample assignment for one day, not a complete syllabus.

  • The Teachings and Doctrine of the Book of Mormon, Take Two

    Our next entry comes from Matt W. (see the first post and explanation here).

  • The Teachings and Doctrine of the Book of Mormon, Take One

    One big change resulting from the new CES and BYU Religious Ed curriculum will be that, instead of two classes on the Book of Mormon, now only one will be required; here is its description:

  • Mormons and Politics

    Readers may be interested in a recent episode of the “Research on Religion Podcast,” featuring Quin Monson (BYU) and Dave Campbell (Notre Dame) discussing their new book Seeking the Promised Land: Mormons and American Politics (also co-authored with John C. Green). The book is the first full length study by professional political scientists of the…

  • Reading and Writing (Genesis): Books, books, and more books

    I have a few things in my way before being able to work full-time on Genesis 1– a recalcitrant article draft, some travel, volunteer work, etc. In the meantime, I’m making slow but good progress. I’m beginning to suspect the most important parts of the book will be the first two sections dealing with groundwork/assumptions and…

  • Doux Commerce in the City of God

    I just put up an essay at the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) that readers of this blog might find interesting. It’s a response to some of Hugh Nibley’s writings on Zion and commerce. Nibley was famously critical of the mercantile ethic, arguing that trade and capitalism were fundamentally hostile to the ideal of Zion.…

  • I Need My Kids

    I Need My Kids

    Last month, my friend Betsy VanDenBerghe wrote a piece for Real Clear Religion inspired alternately by Pope Francis and the Coen brothers’ 1987 comedy Raising Arizona about Why Children Are Better Than Pets. Her central question was: What would a society of adults skewed toward childlessness, like the perpetually barren Time magazine beach couple, look and act…

  • 2015 Summer Seminar on Mormon Theology

    The Second Annual Summer Seminar on Mormon Theology “Christ and Antichrist: Reading Jacob 7” Union Theological Seminary, New York, New York June 8—June 20, 2015

  • Q&A with Myself

    Q. Are you an apologist or neo-apologist? A. No, I’m just a philosopher. Others have said I’m an apologist, but I’ve never been interested in apologetics. Mormonism can stand on its own two feet and it doesn’t need me to defend it.

  • The Next Generation’s Faith Crisis

    The Next Generation’s Faith Crisis

    Let me share a friend’s story; it won’t be new to you. He was raised in the church, did all the things, went on a mission, blah blah blah, and in his 30s, heard for the first time that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon by looking at a stone in a hat.

  • Mormon Weakness

    My position is a weak one. But the question is: why?

  • Constructive Thoughts on the Curriculum Shift

    As I’ve stopped hyperventilating over the leak of this forthcoming change, I’ve had some thoughts. I have a general rule when I’m in Gospel Doctrine that I try not to say anything unless it’s constructive (or the teacher says something really flagrantly crazy/wrong, which is rare in my experience.) Let me open with this positiveness, then.…

  • Letter to a CES Student

    It’s important to keep our tough questions about Mormonism in perspective. And, especially, we need to keep the genuinely urgent questions front and center. The big problems are straightforward. We’re dying here. You and I. We’re getting sick, we’re getting old, and we’re dying. Our lives are small and our time is short. Our days…