But, first, a new piece of mine appeared yesterday in Meridian Magazine: “Enduring Lessons from the Raising of Lazarus.” I hope that you’ll see some value in it. *** I’m copying out, for my notes, passages that struck me while re-reading Eugene England, Brother Brigham (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1980), some time back in preparation for the Interpreter Foundation’s planned Six Days in August film project. I see nothing wrong with sharing them here: On... Read more
“One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.” (Psalm 27:4 KJV) I love the temple, and I love temples. A few weeks ago, my wife and I drove out to take a nighttime look at the newly completed Saratoga Springs Utah Temple, across... Read more
A very worthwhile essay from two of my favorite commentators at the Deseret News, Jacob Hess and Hal Boyd: “Perspective: What’s behind American media’s unhealthy fixation on ‘Mormons, Inc.’?” The oldest currently known copy of a biblical text is to be found on what are commonly called the “Hinnom Scrolls.” Discovered in 1979-80 during excavations led by Gabriel Barkay, of Tel Aviv University, in a series of burial caves located not far to the southwest of... Read more
This review essay, written by Jeff Lindsay, just went up on the blog of the Interpreter Foundation: “Brent J. Schmidt’s Relational Faith: An Essential Book for Understanding the New Testament Meaning of “Faith” and for Better Appreciating the Beauty of the Restoration” As did this archived recording of our weekly AM radio program: Interpreter Radio Show — May 7, 2023 In the 7 May 2023 episode of the Interpreter Radio Show, Terry Hutchinson, Spencer Kraus, Hales Swift, and Brent... Read more
I thought, it being late on the evening of the Sabbath as I write, that some might enjoy reading a few short excerpts from Marvin J. Besteman (with Lorilee Craker), My Journey to Heaven: What I Saw and How It Changed My Life (Grand Rapids: Revell, 2012). Marvin J. Besteman (1934-2012) was a graduate of Calvin College, a veteran of the United States Army, and a retired bank president in Michigan. Provided that what he relates in My... Read more
At least half, and probably more, of the flights that I’ve taken in the past year or two have ended up being substantially delayed or altogether cancelled. (Back on 1 August of last year, in a blog entry here, I celebrated a wonderful day on which I spent nine hours traveling from my house to my house while trying to give a fireside in Irvine, California; my journey included some wonderful views of Las Vegas from a circling... Read more
Two new review-articles appeared earlier today (Friday) in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “A New and Most Welcome Resource for Book of Abraham Studies,” written by Quinten Barney Review of Stephen O. Smoot, John Gee, Kerry Muhlestein, and John S. Thompson, “A Guide to the Book of Abraham,” BYU Studies Quarterly 61, no. 4 (2022). 302 pages. Abstract: The new and special issue of BYU Studies containing “A Guide to the Book of Abraham” provides a welcome and easy-to-read... Read more
An article of mine appeared in Meridian Magazine last evening: “A Mind Built to Believe.” I hope that somebody will read it. Also . . . “The religious term you should try to stop using: A growing group of scholars, journalists and others recommend against labeling a faith group as a cult” I blush to admit that I already said exactly the same thing a long, long time ago, in a book entitled Offenders for a Word: How... Read more
Jeff Bradshaw, one of the vice presidents of the Interpreter Foundation, and Russ Richins and James Jordan — respectively, the producer and associate producer of the Interpreter Foundation’s Witnesses film and our Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon docudrama and our short “Witnesses” video features — are over in the Democratic Republic of the Congo at the moment, where they are gathering material for what we currently conceive as a series of short videos about the people... Read more
Dr. Mario Beauregard, a Canadian cognitive neuroscientist who is currently affiliated with the University of Arizona’s Department of Psychology, was a member of the faculty of the Université de Montréal when, with Denyse O’Leary, he wrote The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Case for the Existence of the Soul (New York City: Harper Collins, 2007). On page 10 of The Spiritual Brain, Beauregard and O’Leary recount a story that I had forgotten about the terrible crash of an Air France airbus... Read more
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