Theology
Bill Russell: Nephi is Dangerous
The following comments were recorded at the 1993 Sunstone Symposium. Bill Russell spoke on the recurring theme as Sunstone called “The Pillars of my Faith”. He is a past president of the Mormon History Association. I don’t know who introduced him, but this is what the person said when he introduced Bill Russell. Introduction, “William […]
Women and Temples
It’s amazing what you can learn on the Bloggernacle. Â Layne at Feminist Mormon Housewives expressed concern about a policy at a temple she attended. Â As Young Women’s advisor, she took the young women in her ward to perform baptisms for the dead. Â Apparently the unnamed temple she attended had a policy that women currently experiencing […]
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 […]
Jana Riess: Truth Doesn't have to be Empirical
Jana Riess has recently published a book called Flunking Sainthood in which she decides to spend 1 month participating in various spiritual rituals. For example, she spent one month fasting from sun up to sun down as a pious Muslim would do during Ramadan (though she picked the month of February because it had the […]
Was Jesus Born in December?
In his 1915 classic entitled Jesus the Christ, Elder James E. Talmage maintained that Jesus Christ was born on April 6 in the year 1 BC.1 Talmage was apparently the first LDS writer to propose this particular date. Nearly a century has passed since his book appeared, and in that time it has become practically […]
Daniel Peterson Talks Candidly About Correlation
Dan Wotherspoon put together a 4 hour interview with BYU Professor Daniel Peterson on a variety of topics. It is available on the Mormon Stories Website or at iTunes. I really enjoyed the interview, and decided to create a transcript for part 3 where Peterson talked about his (futile) experience trying to improve the church […]
Heretics, Jesus, and Jarrod's Problem
Life has been unusually busy of late. Sorry I haven’t posted very often–I’ll try to get back on track. A lot of my posts take some time to research, but Jarrod gave me a softball. Rather than leave his comments on my “About page, I thought I could churn out a quick post (requiring no […]
Ancient Proof-Texting
Back in 2008, Jeff Spector introduced me to the concept of proof-texting.  I think we’re all familiar with the idea of taking a scripture out of context to support a certain religious belief.  However, I didn’t realize that this practice goes back thousands of years.  Charles Harrell and Greg Kofford Books has recently published a new […]
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 […]
Mormon Heretic 