Posted in Doctrine, Quotes of Note on Feb 7th, 2011
If we hear any principle taught from the stand that we do not understand, let us seek to comprehend it by the Spirit of God. If it be not of God, we have the privilege of knowing it. We are not required to receive for doctrine everything that we hear. We may say, “I do [...]
Posted in Bible, Church teaching, Doctrine, History, Scripture on Nov 9th, 2010
In my last post (and hinted at in the one before that), I raised the idea that prophets tend to share the worldviews and myths of their culture, with myth properly defined as something like “worldview expressed in narrative.” Their revelations are by necessity received and framed within that worldview. In other words, prophets in [...]
Posted in Bible, Doctrine, Scripture, teaching on Nov 2nd, 2010
We’re way past Genesis at this point, but like the poor, the issue of non-historical scripture will always be among us. Most people know of the genre of “parable” because they’re in the Gospels, but “myth” is very poorly understood and the term carries a lot of negative baggage. You have to be very careful [...]
Posted in Church teaching, Culture, Doctrine, Scripture on Oct 29th, 2010
In my own struggles to balance faith and tradition with scholarship, I find it useful to see how others have done so, particularly when I see close structural parallels between the two traditions. Peter Enns speaks from a Protestant perspective but Protestants aren’t the sole source of useful insight. I’ve enjoyed Jewish perspectives more, explored [...]
Posted in Church, Doctrine, History, Personal Narratives, teaching on Oct 23rd, 2010
Several years ago, a conference was organized by Richard Bushman, Terryl Givens, and several LDS graduate students. Concerned by perceptions of a general abandoning of faith among LDS grad students in religion-related fields, the conference’s focus was encapsulated in its title, Faith and Knowledge.
Lots of people have read Kathryn Soper’s excellent article on teaching sexuality to the youth (particularly the young women) in the last few days. In fact, it’s the highest-viewed article at Patheos in the last week, in spite of being posted on Wednesday. Several blogs have posted their own responses or lengthy comments, and I [...]
Posted in Church teaching, Doctrine on Sep 12th, 2010
Other than tradition that Jonah is historical, there is the New Testament argument. This argument is fairly common and made by non-LDS as well as LDS, but on examination, I think it’s insufficient to prove what its proponents claim. This also applies, by the way, to Lot’s wife turning into a pillar of salt (Luke [...]
Posted in Doctrine, Speculation on Aug 27th, 2010
For $100, you can learn your ancestors’ migratory history on the earth. National Geographic’s Genographic Project is seeking to learn more about human migration by analyzing the DNA of people around the world, including National Geographic readers who are interested in submitting their own cheek swab and in return getting a map of either their [...]
Posted in Doctrine, History, Personal Narratives on Aug 25th, 2010
Patheos has informal partnerships with several of the established brands in Mormonism as well as the Church itself. (Mayhap you noticed two of our guest writers from SLC last week?) As such, we’re beginning a new long-term series. Each week we’ll feature a select article from one of these partners for publication and discussion on [...]
It’s been five years since I posted this, and it came up in a Church discussion the other day, so it’s time for a repeat. I enjoy Orson Scott Card’s books. My in-laws feel that he portrays evil too much in them. OSC has his own defenses of this (cf. A Storyteller in Zion), but [...]
One Eternal Round
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