I’ve been posting some notes over the past few weeks from my evening readings in the New Testament book of Acts. As I’ve noted, Acts is the second-half of a two-part work by the same author, Luke, which scholars commonly call Luke-Acts. In that light, I offer here a summary passage from Mark D. Roberts, Can We Trust the Gospels?: Investigating the Reliability of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2007). Roberts, who, at the time... Read more
I continue to be impressed by the change between the behavior of the apostles on the Saturday before the first Easter (as recorded in the gospels) and the behavior that is recorded in the first chapters of Acts. These men have gone, within the space of a very short time, from cowering fear to fearless public advocacy. Note, for example, Acts 5:27-33: 27 And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high... Read more
A few passages extracted for my notes from John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed, Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think (New York: Gallup Press, 2007): Sharia has been equated with stoning of adulterers, chopping off limbs for theft, imprisonment or death in blasphemy and apostasy cases, and limits on the rights of women and minorities. (49) dcp: Shari‘a is, of course, the Islamic legal and ethical code. It is far more comprehensive than... Read more
The target of Curtis White, The Science Delusion: Asking the Big Questions in a Culture of Easy Answers [Brooklyn and London: Melville Books, 2014], is not science itself but, rather, “science as ideology (or ‘scientism,’ as it is often called),” which White describes as “certainly an abuse of the real value of science.” (10) He is particularly incensed by scientism’s reduction of humans to machines: Are we really just the percolating of leptons and bosons, as philosopher... Read more
Curtis White, who identifies himself as an atheist, had some very interesting things to say in Curtis White, The Science Delusion: Asking the Big Questions in a Culture of Easy Answers [Brooklyn and London: Melville Books, 2014]. Among them are these passages regarding the late Anglo-American “New Atheist” writer Christopher Hitchens: Hitchens’s God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything is an intellectually shameful book. To be intellectually shameful is to be dishonest, to tell less than... Read more
Dr. Stanford Carmack will be our guest for the first hour of the program when Martin Tanner and I host the Interpreter Radio Show this weekend from 7 PM to 9 PM on Sunday, Utah time. Here are his four most recent articles for Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “Pitfalls of the Ngram Viewer” Abstract: Google’s Ngram Viewer often gives a distorted view of the popularity of cultural/religious phrases during the early 19th century... Read more
A new article — you’re surprised, maybe? — has appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. This piece is by Ryan Atwood: “Lehi’s Dream and the Plan of Salvation” Abstract: Lehi’s dream symbolically teaches us about many aspects of Heavenly Father’s plan of salvation. The central message of Lehi’s dream is that all must come unto Jesus Christ in order to be saved. Each of us has the choice to pursue the path... Read more
I was delighted to receive in the mail this afternoon a copy of the revised 2020 second edition of Brian D. Stubbs, Changes in Languages from Nephi to Now, the first edition of which appeared in 2016. I actually received three copies, and will try to see that two of them receive good and worthwhile homes other than my own, where they can do real good. Here are three jacket endorsements that appear on the back cover... Read more
A perfectly astounding passage from Paul Strathern, Napoleon in Egypt (New York: Bantam Books, 2008), regarding Bonaparte’s 1798 invasion of the former land of the pharaohs: As the invasion fleet sailed east across the Mediterranean, Napoleon would lie in bed reading and dictating to Bourrienne. His principal reading was from the Koran. Like Alexander the Great before him, he intended to absorb the religion of the people over whom he would rule. He insisted that, if necessary,... Read more
I discussed the allegedly obscene greed of the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at some length here back when the story about Ensign Peak Advisors first surfaced (toward mid-December, if I recall correctly). To me, it was essentially a non-story, since it’s clear beyond reasonable dispute that the leadership of the Church are not personally growing wealthy from the Church’s funds. On the contrary, it seemed reasonable to me that the Church should... Read more
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