Thanks to the generosity of FAIR, I was able to record a couple of video interviews this afternoon in their American Fork studio. One was with Samuel T. Wilkinson, author of the superb book Purpose: What Evolution and Human Nature Imply about the Meaning of Our Existence. The other was with Ben Spackman. Both revolved around questions of biological evolution and faith. I’ll let you know when they go up.
Professor Wilkinson gave an excellent lecture yesterday on the campus of Brigham Young University. It was filmed, and I assume that it will be posted online within a reasonable period of time. I’ll try to announce it when it’s available.
Join our host, Senator John D. Johnson, as he welcomes Dan Peterson and Russell D. Richins to discuss their new film, ‘Six Days in August’.
The Prophet Joseph Smith is dead, killed by a mob. Enemies of the LDS Church think the church will die with Joseph. In fact that danger is a real possibility. The crisis is undeniable, and the saints in Nauvoo are in chaos.
#politicit #utahelections #utpol #sixdaysinaugust
Beginning at about minute twenty-six or twenty-seven or so of their Standard of Truth podcast “Following the Prophet Joseph Smith after His Death,” Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat and Professor Richard LeDuc have some very positive things to say about Six Days in August. And the whole thing (after the discussion of beer and anti-Mormonism and etc.)
In this episode, we read a couple of missionary emails and talk about why the Church is mocked. We discuss our experience at the premier of the movie 6 Days in August and go on to talk about how Brigham Young follows the Prophet Joseph Smith and his teachings after Joseph and Hyrum’s death.
There’s also a nice 22-minute interview with Twyla Wilson (Mary Ann Angell Young) and John Donovan Wilson (Brigham Young) at Hi Five Live , entitled “6 Days In August, From Script to Screen.”
“The Seed of the Serpent and the Seed of the Woman in the Standard Works,” written by Noel Hudson
Abstract: The curse of the serpent in Genesis 3:15 is presented as an archetype for the battle between good and evil. An ancient Hebrew literary form that ties together multiple stories through a common set of images, situations, repeated words, and phrases, is termed a leitmotif. A biblical leitmotif based on the curse of the serpent in Genesis 3 and the curse of Cain in Genesis 4 is found throughout both the Old and New Testaments and is referred to as the seed of the serpent leitmotif. Hebrew prophets, early Christians, and protestant reformers all found the seed of the serpent leitmotif to be a compelling theme containing prophecies about the coming of the Messiah and the ultimate destruction of the wicked. Writers in the Book of Mormon and other Restoration scriptures appear to have used the same seed of the serpent leitmotif to clearly identify the protagonist of a given story as the true seed of the woman and to brand the antagonist of the story as the seed of the serpent. The paper begins with a discussion of the leitmotif in Genesis. It then extends to the rest of the Bible, using the story of Abimelech as an archetype. Following this foundation, it then shows how the leitmotif occurs in a variety of sermons and stories throughout the standard works and, in particular, the Book of Mormon. The paper concludes with a discussion of the explanatory power of this literary device for the understanding and edification of modern-day readers.
“Interpreting Interpreter: Serpentine (and Womanly) Seeds,” written by Kyler Rasmussen
This post is a summary of the article “The Seed of the Serpent and the Seed of the Woman in the Standard Works” by Noel Hudson in Volume 63 of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. All of the “Interpreting Interpreter” articles may be seen at https://interpreterfoundation.org/category/summaries/. An introduction to the “Interpreting Interpreter” series is available at https://interpreterfoundation.org/interpreting-interpreter-on-abstracting-thought/.
The Takeaway: Hudson outlines the biblical leitmotif of the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman—an archetype for the battle between good and evil—and provides examples of how that leitmotif is used elsewhere in the Bible (the stories of Cain and Abimelech, among others) and the Book of Mormon (the account of the Amlicites, the story of Zerahemnah, the narrative of Nephi and Laban, and the descriptions of Christ used by Abinadi), as well as alluded to in the New Testament and the Doctrine and Covenants (D&C 10:20-28).
Did you know that there was once a “Mormon village” in northeastern Poland? Well, evidently there was. From Portal Polskiego Radia SA: “Exhibition traces history of Mormon village in northeastern Poland: A new exhibition in northeastern Poland explores the history of a unique local village that was once home to Mormons.”
It seems, moreover, that Zełwągi — a village near the well-known tourist resort of Mikołajki in Poland’s northeastern Mazuria region — was exactly the kind of unendurable theistic hell that careful and alert students of the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™ would expect it to have been:
According to a letter from a former resident displayed in the exhibition, the Mormons were known for their modesty and community spirit: “They didn’t proselytize or try to convert their neighbors. Their religiosity was private, seen only in their chapel, but their kindness and integrity were apparent in their daily interactions.”
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