“An opportunity to learn ‘by study and also by faith'”

Today’s installment of my bi-weekly column for the Deseret News has appeared:

“An opportunity to learn ‘by study and also by faith'”

***

I recommend this blog entry by Jeff Lindsay to anybody who is interested in issues relating to the Book of Abraham:

“A Few Reasons Why Hugh Nibley Is Still Relevant for Book of Abraham Scholarship”

***

I also commend this piece to your attention, by Stephen Smoot:

“How Church Leaders Receive Revelation for the Whole Church: Peter’s Example”

***

Here are a trio of related articles published early on in the history of the Interpreter Foundation and of what is now called Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship, and which you may easily have missed.  I call your attention to them in case you’re interested:

Benjamin L. McGuire, “Josiah’s Reform: An Introduction”

William J. Hamblin, “Vindicating Josiah”

Abstract: Margaret Barker has written a number of fascinating books on ancient Israelite and Christian temple theology. One of her main arguments is that the temple reforms of Josiah corrupted the pristine original Israelite temple theology. Josiah’s reforms were therefore, in some sense, an apostasy. According to Barker, early Christianity is based on the pristine, original pre-Josiah form of temple theology. This paper argues that Josiah’s reforms were a necessary correction to contemporary corruption of the Israelite temple rituals and theologies, and that the type of temple apostasy Barker describes is more likely associated with the Hasmoneans.

Kevin Christensen, “Prophets and Kings in Lehi’s Jerusalem and Margaret Barker’s Temple Theology”

Abstract: King Josiah’s reign has come under increasing focus for its importance to the formation of the Hebrew Bible, and for its proximity to the ministry of important prophets such as Jeremiah and Lehi. Whereas the canonical accounts and conventional scholarship have seen Josiah portrayed as the ideal king, Margaret Barker argues Josiah’s reform was hostile to the temple. This essay offers a counterpoint to Professor Hamblin’s “Vindicating Josiah” essay, offering arguments that the Book of Mormon and Barker’s views and sources support one another.

***

In Church-related news:

“Spouses of US Governors Assemble Hygiene Kits at Church Humanitarian Center”

Some 25 governors from around the country, both Democrats and Republicans, are gathered at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City for a three-day meeting of the National Governors Association that runs from Wednesday through Friday.  The meetings will conclude with a version of Donny and Marie Osmond’s Las Vegas show.

Posted from Jasper, Alberta, Canada