Movie/Book Reviews
The Week of Holy Days: Palm Sunday, Passover, and Easter
Today begins is an interesting week of Holy Days: Palm Sunday, Passover, and Easter. Today is Palm Sunday. Passover begins Monday night at sunset, and of course Easter is next Sunday. I thought I’d do a post which ties all of these related holidays (or stated better–Holy Days) together. Palm Sunday
Has Sodom and Gomorrah Been Found?
Dr. Carole Fontaine of the Andover Newton Theological School said, “Archeologists often find themselves hooted and hollered out of town, when they first suggest things like, ‘I’ve found Troy, or look, we’ve found Sodom and Gomorrah.’ But history has shown that in fact, the more you dig, the more you find. It’s amazing how accurate […]
War and Prayer
Religion is supposed to be about peace, but often it is about war. Some of the worst religious wars include Islamic Jihad, Christian Crusades, and Joshua’s Unholy War. I wish Mormons didn’t have anything to be ashamed of, but I’ve been reading The Mountain Meadows Massacre by Juanita Brooks. One of the things I didn’t […]
Dueling Wordprint Studies
This is the 3rd post reviewing By the Hand of Mormon, by Terryl Givens. I’ve taken a bit on an interest in wordprint studies. Givens explains wordprint studies on page 156. Computational stylistics is based on the premise that all authors exhibit subtle, quantifiable stylistic traits that are equivalent to a literary fingerprint, or wordprint. […]
Are Mormon Academics Winning the Debate with Evangelicals?
It’s time to get back to Terryl Givens book, By the Hand of Mormon. While acknowledging archaeological data isn’t as strong as other aspects of the Book of Mormon, Givens seems to feel Mormon academics have made some impressive contributions. Givens starts with Hugh Nibley on page 118:
Foundations of Book of Mormon Archaeology
I’ve been enjoying Terryl Givens book, By the Hand of Mormon. He has a positive view of Mormon scholarship, and goes into detail of both literary and archaeological scholarship. Wikipedia has some interesting information on Givens: His second book, By the Hand of Mormon, is seen as his most important contribution to Mormon studies to […]
Please Vote for the Niblets
Mormon Matters has put together “the best of the bloggernacle” awards, which have been dubbed “the Niblets”. I guess it is a sort of fans’ choice awards. So, be sure to go there and vote! If you don’t vote for me (I have 2 nominations there), be sure to vote for the Faithful Dissident, Irrestible […]
The Shakers of D&C 49
After Christmas, we decided to finally upgrade our television, and got a new 55 inch HD LCD. It’s pretty nice. As part of the package, we are able to download Netflix directly to the television. The first Netflix movie I watched on my new television was Ken Burns’ America: The Shakers (1985). I picked it […]
LDS Film Festival 2010
The LDS Film Festival begins Jan 20. I admit to being an aspiring film maker. I have great designs to one day do a documentary on some church related topic. I’ve been to the festival for the past 3 years, and I hope to be able to go this weekend. The schedule can be found […]
The Brigham Young Papers: (There is a soft side to him)
There has been much press about volumes 1 and 2 of The Joseph Smith Papers Project. My wife even spoiled me with a copy of volume 2 this past Christmas. It contains the actual hand-written revelations of Joseph, along with a typed copy to help the reader understand some of the hard to read handwriting. […]