Intellectualism
Why Bushman Became a Historian
This is a continuation of the previous post Growing up as Richard Bushman,  John Dehlin asks Richard Bushman why he became a historian. JD, “Well, let me ask you, how did you become a historian?†Bushman, “You know, I can hardly give an answer to that question. I started at Harvard planning to do science. […]
Growing up as Richard Bushman
John Dehlin interviewed Richard Bushman in a wonderful 5-part series back in 2007. Â Since the interview is so long, I decided to split it up into parts and will publish these serially as I complete the transcription. Â In this first part, Bushman describes growing up in the church. Â I’ve abbreviated John Dehlin as JD. JD, […]
John Hamer Part 2
This is a followup to part 1 of the interview with John Hamer on RLDS church history. JD stands for the interviewer John Dehlin, while JH is John Hamer. JD: So what else defines the RLDS Church sort of post late-1800s, you know between that time and the early 1960s when I started getting really […]
Friendly Atheist Finds Value in Book of Mormon
Clay Painter of Mormon Expression interviewed Bob Price about his opinions of the Book of Mormon. Not everyone believes the Book of Mormon is a truly divine document, but I found it interesting to hear that Bob finds value in the Book of Mormon, despite his being an atheist. Regarding Mormon Expression, sometimes I find […]
Boomerang Back to Religion
I transcribed a bit more of the Jana Riess interview from Mormon Stories. Â There have been many posts (such as this one by Mike S) lamenting the fact that the activity rates seem to be slowing for the LDS Church. Â I thought it was interesting that John Dehlin acknowledged that atheists are having a hard […]
Bloom calls Smith "most eminent intellectual in Mormon history"
In 1969 Leonard Arrington asked 50 prominent Mormons to identify the “five most eminent intellectuals in Mormon history.” The list was published in Dialogue. Twenty-four years later, Dialogue decided to run the survey again. It was re-published a few month ago in the Deseret News, and it has been a favorite bloggernacle topic for the […]
The Chicago Experiment: A Fundamentalist-Modernist Battle
When it comes to religion, there are 2 main camps: fundamentalists and modernists. Perhaps you would prefer the term “conservative” and “liberal”; to some degree, these terms make sense. Casey Paul Griffiths came out with an article in BYU studies back in January called “The Chicago Experiment” and said “the Church had inserted itself directly […]
The Finale of MHA 2011
Sadly, all good things must come to an end. MHA 2011 finished with a bang. Once again it was hard to pick which session to attend. Steve Olsen, Shawn Bennion, and Brandon Plewe combined for a session titled “New Perspectives on Mormon History”. Steve spoke on how we often argue history. To bolster an argument […]
Mormon Heretic 