So, the impatient reader is asking by now, just what are we to think of Muhammad? Was he a genuine prophet, or was he not? My answer to that is a clear and resolute “I don’t know.” Or perhaps a decisive “Yes and no.” Parley P. Pratt, who was enthusiastic in his praise of Muhammad and Islam, observed that the blessings of the priesthood were not intended to flow through the line of Ishmael, but rather through that… Read more

      Sigh.  A few folks have gone wild at my post about renouncing political comments here.  It’s difficult to tell whether they’re being sincere or are merely feigning incomprehension — these are people who, for years, have earnestly striven to misunderstand just about everything I say and do — but, in order to avoid any misunderstanding among folks who aren’t trying to get it wrong, I offer some additional notes.  They’re as clear as I know how to… Read more

    A new article appeared today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation.  It was written by Jared R. Stenson:   “Temporal Mercies and Eternal Being: Using the Science of Time to Understand God’s Nature and Our Own” Abstract: How does God relate to time? How do we? Modern science and revelation offer distinctive and fascinating perspectives to these questions. Specifically, the physical mechanisms underlying time have doctrinal parallels, they appear to be operative at the Fall, and they correlate… Read more

    Many years ago, during a meeting at Church headquarters with two members of the Twelve, the subject arose of my having delivered several papers at annual conferences of the Sunstone Foundation — a group of which some of you may still be aware.  It once loomed larger on the Latter-day Saint intellectual landscape than I think it does now, and it was a place where liberal and sometimes downright “fringy” Latter-day Saints tended to congregate.  Often, or so… Read more

    In an entry that I posted here a few days ago, I commented that Latter-day Saint theological interactions with Muslims will be easier to the extent that we can say positive things about Muhammad, whom Muslims esteem very, very highly — or, at least, to the degree that we’re not obliged to say negative things about him.  Here, I continue that discussion:   Fortunately, we can say good things without cynicism or pre­tense. From its earliest years, leaders of… Read more

    The latest installment of my bi-weekly Deseret News column went up earlier today (Thursday):   “Israel may be the most studied archeological site in the world, but discoveries keep coming: Archeologists have found a temple, smaller than Solomon’s Temple, in Tel Moza, about 4 miles outside of Jerusalem.”   ***   A beautifully written and thoughtful little essay on living under the threat of the coronavirus in Israel/Palestine:   “Covid-19 in the land where Jesus walked”   ***… Read more

    Sir John Polkinghorne, now in his ninetieth year, is both a Knight of the British Empire (KBE) and a Fellow of the prestigious Royal Society (founded by, among others, Sir Christopher Wren and Sir Isaac Newton).  Sir John was a professor of mathematical physics at the University of Cambridge until he resigned his professorial chair in order to study for the Anglican priesthood.  He was ordained a priest in 1982 and, thereafter, served as the president of Queens’ College, Cambridge, from 1988 until 1996.   Here is a passage from the text… Read more

    Evaluations of Muhammad have varied wildly. Skeptical Western writers for years regarded him as a fraud. (Indeed, many liked to link him with Joseph Smith in that regard. To associate the two was to damn both.)[1] The great fourteenth-century Christian poet Dante Alighieri placed him in one of the deepest reaches of Hell.[2] For Muslims, on the other hand, he is the incomparable Messenger of God, “the seal of the prophets.” His place in Islamic piety is astonishingly… Read more

    A few days ago, I recorded a lecture for BYU Education Week 2020 entitled “The Book of Mormon Witnesses: Sincerity and Reality.”  As this news item indicates, it will be available for viewing in October of this year:   “BYU Education Week to be held online in October”   ***   In the interim, though, I let Sic et Non slip briefly into People magazine mode with regard to two public Latter-day Saint personalities based in the eastern… Read more

    New, via the website of the Interpreter Foundation:   “Producing Ancient Scripture — Thomas Wayment on Joseph Smith’s Use of Adam Clarke in the JST”   ***   Also new on the Interpreter Foundation website:   Audio Roundtable: Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon Lesson 33 “The Rock of Our Redeemer”: Helaman 1-6 The Interpreter Radio Roundtable for Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon Lesson 33, “The Rock of Our Redeemer,” on Helaman 1-6, featured Bruce Webster, Kris Frederickson, and Mike Parker.  This roundtable was extracted… Read more