I think that I failed to call y0ur attention to this item, which went up two or three days ago on the still barely-alive website of the Interpreter Foundation: “Book of Moses Essays #54: Moses Sees the Garden of Eden (Moses 3): Spiritual Creation (Moses 3:5–7)” Thinking about creation right now, I can’t help but picture the crater of Haleakala, where we stood on Sunday afternoon. (See above.) In a very real way, it is a... Read more
*** This interesting reminiscence was just published in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: Gordon C. Thomasson, “Matthew Black and Mircea Eliade Meet Hugh Nibley” Abstract: As a graduate student, Gordon Thomasson had the opportunity to introduce two internationally renowned scholars to the publications and scholarship of Hugh Nibley: Matthew Black, an eminent scholar of ancient Enoch writings; and Mircea Eliade, famed chair of the History of Religions program at the University of Chicago. Upon... Read more
*** After a leisurely morning that included partaking of the sacrament, we drove over to the Kula district — where, by the way, most of the famous Maui onions are grown — on the western slope of the massive volcano Haleakalā. We had a specific reason for going there: We wanted to see the historic little Pulehu Chapel once again. My next column for Meridian Magazine will probably center, to at least some degree, on Pulehu. We... Read more
*** You may perhaps have missed this: “Apple iTunes Features the Witnesses Movie Trailer on the Front Page of their Movie Trailer Site” One critic, obviously in acute need of something, anything, negative to say about the Witnesses film in response to the iTunes story, has demanded to know how the film will help people who need food or clean water or comfort in sorrow or relief from disease or help with disability. To which,... Read more
*** Two new items have appeared today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: Brant A. Gardner, “Giving the Book of Ether its Proper Due” Review of Daniel L. Belnap, ed., Illuminating the Jaredite Records (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University / Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2020). 320 pages. Hardback, $27.95. Abstract: Illuminating the Jaredite Record collects ten papers by different Book of Mormon scholars. This is the second publication from the Book of Mormon Academy at Brigham Young University, a collection of... Read more
*** First, though, don’t miss this newly published item on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: ““One Peep at the Other Side”: What Did Hugh Nibley’s Near-Death Experience Teach Him about the Purpose of Life?” *** This portion of today’s post is continued from “Addendum 5: Founding the Middle Eastern Texts Initiative at BYU (Part 1)”: PROFESSOR DR MORITZ-MARIA VON IGELFELD often reflected on how fortunate he was to be exactly who he... Read more
*** I’m pleased to report that, with no apparent connection to any celebration of Cinco de Mayo, billboard advertisements for the Interpreter Foundation’s theatrical film Witnesses have evidently gone up today at a few places along Interstate 15 in the region of Salt Lake City. There may also be one down in St. George. I’ll need to wait for a few days to see them myself; here on Maui, we have neither an interstate nor, so far... Read more
*** The most recent installment of my new twice-a-month column for Meridian Magazine has now appeared: “Martin Harris: Skeptic or Gullible Dupe?” For some odd reason, the Book of Mormon witnesses have been on my mind quite a bit lately. *** In case you missed them: “President Russell M. Nelson and the COVID-19 vaccine: What the church leader has said and done: Revered as a prophet by Latter-day Saints, he prayed throughout... Read more
I want to remind you that the Interpreter Foundation’s new feature film Witnesses will open in selected theaters within slightly less than a month, and that tickets are already on sale for it. You can order tickets by going to the film’s official website. Look in the upper left corner of the website for the button that is marked, rather enigmatically and mysteriously, Get Tickets. If your favorite theater doesn’t yet appear on the list of theaters for... Read more
*** Happily, we were able to attend the funeral of our friend and Orem neighbor yesterday. (See “Farewell, For Now, to a Friend,” but also one of the “other matters” here.) Doing so, however, has definitely put me into an elegiac mood. Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day. Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away. Change and decay in all around I see. O Thou who changest not, abide with me. ... Read more
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