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82 responses
Mormonism and Pluralism In the U.S. today, many people are wary of religion because they feel it often supports a kind of intolerance. Mitt Romney’s presidential candidacy provides an interesting case study on the relationship between faith and pluralism. On the one hand, we see clear examples of religious intolerance from people like Bill Keller. On the other hand, ironically, the Mormon faith to which Romney adheres is committed in its very scripture to a deep and wide pluralism. Read More
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7 responses
What does today’s Deseret Morning News editorial have in common with my 1941 copper medal bearing the legend “Our Standard Bearer†over the likeness of President Heber J. Grant? Read More
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14 responses
Does source study make us better readers? I, Hercules, Duke of Ferrara, [attest that] we now have in our city of Ferrara several nuns miraculously redolent of holiness, and above all the worthy sister Lucy of Narnia Read More
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63 responses
J. Nelson Seawright put up a post last week that is clearly a Trojan horse designed to undermine liberal Mormons. Sure, it disguises itself as a discussion of how to conceivably be more correct than the General Authorities; but this is obviously just a front. So let me warn all the liberals away from this trap before they reap the whirlwind. Read More
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10 responses
Shannon Hale is a Newbery Honor-winning, New York Times bestseller-listed author of youth and fantasy fiction, most particularly Goose Girl and Princess Academy. This week sees the release of her latest novel Austenland, her first adult fiction novel. She is a returned missionary and lives in Salt Lake City with her husband and two under-three-years-old children. Read More
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53 responses
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24 responses
Writing for a Mormon audience may be wasting the potential influence of Mormon readers. Read More
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28 responses
I’ve been thinking of late about apologetics. Read More
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15 responses
Douglas Thayer is one of the pioneers of what Eugene England called “faithful realism” in his definitive study of Mormon literature. Besides having taught literally thousands of Mormon writers during his fifty years as a professor of English at Brigham Young University, his short story collections Under the Cottonwoods and Mr. Wahlquist in Yellowstone have become a template for those writing about the interior life of Mormons today. He has also published the novels Summer Fire and The Conversion of Jeff Williams. Read More
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18 responses
Thirty years ago this summer, President Spencer W. Kimball gave us his “Gospel Vision of the Arts”: Read More
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43 responses
Some recent blog comments have discussed how the church’s history on race compares to other religions. Now, national politicians and pundits are discussing the same thing. There seems to be a general perception that the LDS church has not had a strong record as to race. The underlying facts, however, are quite a bit more complicated than that simple answer would suggest. As it turns out, the correct answer to the query “In matters of race, has the LDS church been progressive compared with other religious institutions, or has it been regressive?”, is: Both. This is the first in a… Read More
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21 responses
They weren’t like us. “Watch out for les Arabes,†I learned as a missionary in the south of France. Read More
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129 responses
You should. Read More
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11 responses
Part of medieval Christianity’s reworking of its inheritance from Classical Antiquity included turning the Greek Sibyls from local oracles into foretellers of Christ’s birth. After the christianized Sibyls’ prophecies had spent a thousand years or so on the medieval equivalent of the bestseller list, meddling philologists started asking just how the pre-Christian Sibyls came to know Jerome’s Vulgate so well. Read More
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56 responses
Three years ago, I related how Caitlyn, our second daughter, imposed a new ending upon the story of “The Ten Young Women,” in which, after the foolish women who’d left to refill their lamps returned to find the door to the wedding feast closed, the Bridegroom returned, opened the door again, admitted everyone, and everything ended happily. She is seven years old now, and less innocent, but her longings remain the same. Read More
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49 responses
What if I didn’t believe in God? Would I still be a Mormon? Read More
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213 responses
“Mother’s Day is an equal opportunity [very bad] day,” writes Kristine at VSOM. Read More
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70 responses
So what was it? What did your ward pass out to its mothers/all women on Mother’s/Every-Woman-Over-18 Day? Read More
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21 responses
Markets are a big deal in my intellectual life. For a living, I teach and think about the law that makes markets possible. By and large, I think that markets are really cool. I think that they are probably the single greatest engine for the material betterment of the human race. Poverty causes a great deal of misery. Economic development strikes me as the single greatest way of alleviating poverty. Markets are what make economic growth possible. I also think that markets serve important political purposes by facilitating peaceful cooperation between those with violently opposed political and religious beliefs. Markets,… Read More
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96 responses
[1] Now updated with footnotes! Read More
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45 responses
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39 responses
I’ll bet all of us with sizable book collections have heard this question from time to time. Read More
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59 responses
I. This morning, driving Daughter to school: Read More
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102 responses
I’ll start this book review with two anecdotes of my own, from a Mormon ward in Belgium. Last Sunday, in church, the bishop’s sister told us that her little boys were so excited because they were looking forward to the swimming party in the afternoon. The bishop’s own family and the families of his siblings were going to enjoy a pleasurable family Sunday afternoon: togetherness, games, swimming, fun and food, and it would probably last until late in the evening. Read More
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51 responses
In October conference, President Hinckley made an interesting statement about marriage, education, and equality between spouses. Read More
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49 responses
I love Mormon folk songs. Read More
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45 responses
Reader Rebecca V. points out a fascinating new church newsroom statement intended to clarify the meaning of church doctrine. Read More
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7 responses
In doing research on 19th century church courts, I recently came across a legal issue that I haven’t seen before: What exactly is the evidentiary value of speaking in tongues? Read More
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This may be the best thing you ever read in the Bloggernacle. Read More
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38 responses
“Global nomads” is apparently how marketing demographers refer to people who make a practice of living outside their native country. I imagine it’s supposed to make the expatriate experience sound adventurous, upscale, and fashion-forward, but mostly the phrase strikes me as a bit silly and pretentious. That being said, it’s remarkable how perfectly suited Mormonism is as a church for global nomads. Read More