I witnessed a very powerful illustration of the vanity of the pride of the world the other day, or at least I witnessed it until I realized that I was probably wrong. Read More

So, umm, I sort of dimly know what Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby sound like, but the voice that means Christmas for me is John Shirley-Quirks’s. Read More

A couple of days ago, Bob Caswell reposted at BCC a wonderful old post of his, dealing primarily with the complications of missionary work in an area (in this case, Bulgaria) where there are significant racial, social, and economic factors which get in the way of preaching the gospel to everyone equally. In the comments following that post, Gary made an observation which has been made many times before, but which probably cannot be repeated too often: Read More

Are Mormons a “myopic� people? The historian Richard Poll first suggested the possibility in an article on Mormon personality published many years ago. Read More

To prove that engineers have a sense of humor, I send the following to my family every year at Christmas. I wish I could say I wrote it, but I didn’t, and don’t know who did. Perhaps you’ve seen it before. If not, enjoy. Read More

Yesterday the W$J ran a story on “microinequities” — “the subtle putdowns, snubs, dismissive gestures and sarcastic tones that can sap motivation.” Life is full of microinequities, and Church life is not a safe haven. Read More

We are soon approaching the year when we’ll celebrate the 200th anniversary of Joseph Smith’s birth. As we do so, we should also reflect back on the 100th anniversary of his birth, and the legacy of that extraordinarily chaotic period. In The Politics of American Religious Identity, Kathleen Flake vividly illustrates that in 1904 and 1905, the Church was in the midst of deep and grave crisis. Read More

Recent news reports indicate that former CES instructor Grant Palmer will be facing church discipline. Any time that church discipline comes into the news, the conversation inevitably turns to the secretive Strengthening Church Members Committee which is said to maintain files on church members suspected of intellectual improprities. In a recent and lengthy blog post, the Mormon Wasp collects and discusses information and statements about the Committee (including official church statements). Mormon Wasp’s post is very informative for anyone interested in reading on this topic. Read More

John Hatch is leaving Sunstone to go to school. Over at BCC, he has a lengthy and interesting further discussion of his own life and faith. It’s a powerful, personal statement that makes fascinating reading (and if you want controversy, well, it has parts that may be likely to offend almost everyone in one way or another). To borrow a line, go read the whole thing. Read More

Drawing on some existing discussion, Jeff Lindsay suggests that the “swords” of the Book of Mormon may have actually been spiked wooden war clubs. This idea seems problematic for several reasons: Read More

So I often hear from my “intellectual” Mormon friends how they feel this crushing weight of isolation and judgemental pressure from their fellow Saints. I don’t really get it. Read More

Since Lavell Edwards retired, BYU’s football program has entered the arms race that is major college football. Read More

My post begins with a pointed question: Are higher education and the scriptural ideal of Zion at odds? The question had never occurred to me until a few years ago while living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Read More

By adding Wilfried as a permablogger a few weeks ago, we not only gained an interesting colleague, but extended Times & Seasons beyond the borders of the United States. Over the past 24 hours, I have been tracking traffic at Times & Seasons to get a glimpse at our readership around the world. Here is what I found. Read More

Married, but only one of the partners is Mormon. In the “mission field” such part-Mormon couples are numerous, probably more than in area’s where Mormons have lived for generations. Sociologists study this phenomenon among various affiliations. “Religious intermarriage”, “religious homogamy / heterogamy”, “interchurch / interfaith marriages” are some of the key words of this academic field of study. Read More

I want to ask a question within the genre of scriptural exegesis. When our church leaders commend us to seek education, they often quote Read More

In our house, we have a box full of picture books that comes out on the first Sunday in Advent, and I’m always on the lookout for new Christmas books. Read More

In her brilliant book Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition (Uillinois, 1985), Jan Shipps suggests that the Word of Wisdom replaced polygamy as “boundary maintenance� between the church and the world. Read More

It’s shockingly easy to make confessions on the internet, and I can’t resist making one of my own: Read More

For the next two weeks, Times and Seasons will be delighted to play host to the rigorous questions and thoughtful musings of one Carl Glen Henshaw, an old friend and a bona fide science geek. Read More

I was just reading a new blog for Mormon teens called “The Greenies,” and LJ used “Old Nick” as an alternative appellation for Satan. Read More

I have decided to forgo the Christmas tree ritual this year. For the first time in my life I won’t have a sweet scented evergreen in my front room during the holidays. Read More

The utterly fascinating comments about rock concerts confirm one of my theories about BYU and Provo. I want to pass it by T&S readers for critique, criticism, comment. My theory is Read More

Nobel Laureate David Baltimore, currently President of Caltech, abhors the balanced life. He thinks it is destroying America. Read More

Has anyone ever attended a rock concert at BYU? You may have noticed that they dried up in the mid-1980s, and I am trying to figure out why. In the 1970s artists such as Elton John, America, Read More