*** Back in 2005, I was invited to write a little mini-essay for the Church’s official website. Here it is: “Everyone Else Makes Such Lonely Heavens” I thought of it because of a complaint against the Church that I saw recently, and that I’ve come across several times over the past few years. I find it exceedingly odd. Roughly, it goes like this: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is to... Read more
*** Marking a milestone in the history of the Interpreter Foundation, we published a blog entry today with an invited note from Dr. Matthew Bowen, of Brigham Young University — Hawaii: “500 Weeks of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship” *** I’ve still been going through past blog entries, culling out items that I think might be useful for current or future writing projects. Here’s one of them: In August... Read more
*** The Interpreter Foundation published several new items yesterday and today. I thought that you should know: “Interpreting Interpreter: Enjoying Inherited Possessions” This post is a summary of the article ““We Might Have Enjoyed Our Possessions and the Land of Our Inheritance”: Hebrew yrš and 1 Nephi 17:21” by Matthew L. Bowen in Volume 50 of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. The full article can be read at https://interpreterfoundation.org/we-might-have-enjoyed-our-possessions-and-the-land-of-our-inheritance-hebrew-yrs-and-1-nephi-1721/. An introduction to the Interpreting Interpreter series is... Read more
*** I’m continuing the theme of my blog entry from yesterday, “Our only hope for full flowering”: In my remarks at the 2017 FairMormon conference, one of my comments concerned the fact that none of us achieve our full potential in this life. In fact — and, for this point, I used the tragic story of Ludwig van Beethoven as an illustration — many of us die sadly young, undernourished, uneducated, impoverished, and/or ill, coming nowhere near... Read more
*** I continue to be struck by a quotation from then-Elder Russell M. Nelson that was, I believe, cited in the September 2014 issue of the Ensign. Back in 1992, he wrote: We were born to die and we die to live. As seedlings of God, we barely blossom on earth; we fully flower in heaven. This is one of the great arguments for the desirability of life after death. Not for the truth of the... Read more
*** Come, Follow Me — Old Testament Study and Teaching Helps: Lesson 9, February 21–27: Genesis 24–27 — “The Covenant Is Renewed” Jonn Claybaugh has supplied another useful set of brief notes for families, students, and teachers in the Come, Follow Me program. Audio Roundtable: Come, Follow Me Old Testament Lesson 9 “The Covenant Is Renewed”: Genesis 24–27 The Interpreter Radio Roundtable for Come, Follow Me Old Testament Lesson 9, “The Covenant Is Renewed” on Genesis 24–27 features Bruce... Read more
*** As you may be aware, the Interpreter Foundation docudrama Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon will receive its premiere on Friday, 4 March, as part of the 2022 LDS Film Festival. (You can go here to obtain tickets, if they are still available.) As I’ve mentioned previously, the docudrama features interviews with historians and other experts, both members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and nonmembers, and expands its coverage beyond the... Read more
*** Kerry Muhlestein and Lamar Newmayer have a podcast that they’ve entitled The Scriptures are Real, which they describe as follows: The Scriptures Are Real (TSAR) with Kerry Muhlestein is a podcast where we look at elements of the scriptures that have become real to us. We interview both experts (people with language, archaeological, historical backgrounds, etc.), and lay folks, and explore times when the scriptures became real to them. This is done from the viewpoint... Read more
*** More than a few of you are almost certainly familiar with the regular weekly followHIM Podcast that is hosted by Hank Smith and John Bytheway. (It’s very popular.) Unfortunately, their long run of excellent episodes hit something of a rough patch with the last two installments: Genesis 18-23 — Part 1 : Dr. Daniel C. Peterson (51 minutes) How do the ancient Near Eastern traditions regarding hospitality affect the story of Lot and Sodom and... Read more
*** You might not be completely blown away by astonishment to learn that I wrote a Hawaiian-themed column for Meridian Magazine during the vacation that my wife and I recently took in in the islands. Other things that I did there will seldom be so instantly apparent, but it was, shall we say, a working vacation: “The Surprising Latter-day Saint Connections in Hawaii” *** Two new pieces went up today in Interpreter: A Journal... Read more
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