History
Apostle: Special Witness of Christ
I have just finished The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power by Michael Quinn. Many of us know that a Mormon Apostle is a special witness of Christ. Does that involve a personal vision or visitation of Christ? In the earliest days of the church, it did. Quinn says on page 1,
BYU Education Week Recap 2012
Well, I’m conferenced out now. I attended BYU Education Week for the first time (though my wife has been going for years), and wanted to give a few impressions following my Sunstone and FAIR Conference posts. I was frankly astonished at how enormous BYU Education Week is. It dwarfs these other two conferences in size. […]
The Non-verbal 1978 Revelation
As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been reading the Lengthen Your Stride: Working Draft. Chapter 22 provides more information than is available in Lengthen Your Stride by Edward Kimball. Many have wondered why there has been no written revelation of the 1978 revelation allowed men of all races to hold the priesthood, and […]
The Bushman Interviews
As a recap, here is a recap of all of my posts transcribing the Richard Bushman interview.
Bushman’s Testimony of Joseph Smith
It took more than a month, but I’m finally finished. This is the conclusion of John Dehlin’s 5 part interview with Richard Bushman. (I will post an index tomorrow of the interviews.) JD, “Well if I can ever help, I’m just one small little voice but I’d love to help to that end. Well Brother […]
Stung by the Bees; Why it’s hard to help the Disaffected
Following up on John Dehlin’s feelings on how the Bushman interview has progressed so far, Bushman discusses why it’s hard to help the disaffected. Dehlin, “Now, about this episode, after four hours of interviews with me, it was clear that Dr. Bushman felt as though, in his words, I’d gotten the best out of him. […]
John Dehlin's Thoughts on Bushman and the Role of Church in Disaffection
I can’t believe Richard Bushman has dominated the month of June on my blog. (I actually started this at the end of May.) Anyway, I’m finally on to Part 5 of the Richard Bushman Interview. At this point, John Dehlin takes a short break an explains that the interview will not cover all the topics […]
Examining Book of Mormon Witnesses
This post is a continuation from the previous post where Richard Bushman discussed skeptical theories on the composition of the Book of Mormon. Â Now John Dehlin (JD) turns to ask about the reliability of the Book of Mormon witnesses. Â The audio can be found on Part 4 of the Bushman interview at Mormon Stories. JD, […]
Skeptical Theories on Composition of the Book of Mormon
Continuing with Richard Bushman’s interview at Mormon Stories, in Part 4 John Dehlin (JD) asks Richard Bushman about various skeptical theories on how the Book of Mormon was composed, and Bushman addresses them. What do you think of Bushman’s answers? JD, “There are theories that go around that Joseph Smith was the author of the […]
Better Depictions of the Translation Process of the Book of Mormon
I’ve finally finished the transcription of Part 3 of the Mormon Stories interview between John Dehlin and Richard Bushman (There’s a part 4 and part 5 still to go!)  In this discussion, John Dehlin questions Richard Bushman about whether the translation story should be depicted differently, and Bushman agrees that traditional paintings and tellings of the story should […]