One of the most difficult stages of graduate school comes near the end, when the massive effort required to complete a dissertation collides with the existential crisis of finding a job Read More

In our testimony meeting today, a visitor mildly scolded our ward for a minute-plus silence between testimonies. Read More

Last month’s Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting is now available online here. Read More

I stood at the bus stop, thinking about my music homework. Read More

What does an apostle, who himself had spent a long time away from his young family for military service, who has himself experienced grief and loss, say to a congregation of American servicemen and -women and their families in a distant country, many of whom have been to Iraq or have lost friends there or will soon be in Iraq for an unknowable duration, and who have traveled in many cases for hours to hear an apostle speak? What Elder Ballard said last night was: Read More

I love Brigham Young. I really do. He was a great man by just about every measure. My appreciation for his finer qualities, however, doesn’t blind me to his weak spots. Read More

I remember sitting on my dad’s lap after I burned my bottom on our ancient heating pipes at Hoosier Courts, Bloomington, Indiana. I was four years old, so it was 1959. Read More

September 19 is Talk like a Pirate Day. But every day is Talk like a Pirate Day for me. Arrrr! Read More

For some of us, lapsed subscriptions are a way of life. The parade of reminder cards, the inevitable gaps in coverage — they are as familiar as morning and evening. On rare occasions, this trait leads to vistas the zealously up-to-date subscriber will never see. Read More

Common knowledge holds that Eliza’s poetic lines in O My Father are the only spot that the Heavenly Mother doctrine broke through into mainstream Mormon discourse; that the radical doctrine, taught by Joseph Smith, was preserved only through the valiant efforts of the poetess; that no one else really thought it necessary to celebrate the concept. Common knowledge is wrong. Read More

With all the recent attention to Mitt Romney’s polygamous ancestors, I’m surprised no one has yet commented on the really colorful and interesting ancestor, a decorated Prussian soldier who emigrated to the U.S., marched with the Utah Expedition against the Mormons in 1857, then deserted the army and sought asylum in Salt Lake City, eloping with his Iron Cross. Read More

The ones that you love — well, you love them. And the ones that you hate? They exist to make you stronger. They may be a test. Or, you may be there to help others. Therefore, all callings are good. Read More

Again this summer, Richard Bushman and Terryl Givens will be leading a summer seminar for graduate students on early Mormon thought. The application deadline has been extended to March 2nd, so there is still time to apply (just!). Read More

To read the previous sections of this essay, go here (Part I), here (Part II), and here (Part III). Read More

To read the first section of this essay, go here (Part I) and here (Part II). Read More

To read the first section of this essay, go here. Read More

The following is an essay that I wrote several years ago and never published. I have divided the essay into four posts that will run over the next couple of days. Academics regularlly present unpublished papers at workshops where they get feedback and criticism. I want to experiment with a blog-based version of the same thing in which folks offer thoughts and criticism of the essay as they read it. Enjoy! Read More

I thought this was interesting. Read More

A post for Ash Wednesday, and Lent, and the promise of spring. Read More

We’ve been happy to have P. Anderson, a.k.a. Starfoxy, as a guest blogger. As expected, her posts were always interesting. You can find a list of her guest posts (at many bloggernacle sites) on her blog, here. And I expect we’ll see her around the nacle, with her usual thoughtful comments. Thanks for being our guest, Starfoxy! Read More

After we got the DVD player, the videos slowly fell out of circulation. They had no special features, no subtitles — and they required rewinding! Some were a bit worn, too — particularly the kids videos. So we were all too happy to make the switch, becoming a DVD household. Natural pack-rat tendencies meant that the videos didn’t get truly tossed — they just got put into a box. Meanwhile, new movie purchases for the past several years — Cars and Monsters Inc. and Batman Begins and whatnot — have been on DVD. Read More

After transcribing Julie’s papers, which surprisingly took only a few weeks since they were so interesting that I became fanatical about transcribing during the day and polishing a translation at night, I gave a presentation to the Archives staff about their newest collection. Read More

Church Doctrine is a ubiquitous idea among Mormons, but in some ways it is quite mysterious. Read More

In the Age of Too Much Information, we may forget the unrelenting forces of fire, vermin, carelessness, ignorance, vandalism, damp, and neglect that have destroyed so much of the written evidence of history. Read More

T&S reader and political junkie Marc Bohn is often the first to notice any new Romney material. There were a slew of articles this weekend that discussed Romney and Mormonism, covering all sorts of interesting ground, and Marc has put together this synopsis, with links, of several of the most interesting: Read More

The southern German and Austrian greeting Grüß Gott! ‘may God greet [you]’ is perceived by many local members and American missionaries as a too-frequent or otherwise inappropriate use of a divine title. Read More

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On February 24, 1856, Brigham Young delivered a blistering attack on lawyers and law courts. Read More