There are a couple of newly posted items on the Interpreter Foundation’s website that you might care to check out. And, of course, they are available to you at no charge. This is, after all, what Interpreter does. But, beyond the devoted efforts of volunteers, we rely upon the kindness of generous donors to be able to do it: Audio Roundtable: Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon Lesson 19 We Have Entered into a Covenant with Him: Mosiah 18-24... Read more
Last week, we officially closed out the weirdest BYU semester with which I’ve ever been involved, whether as student or as teacher. On the whole, I think that it went about as well as it could have gone. In my case, though, it went well to a large degree because of two people (beside my long-suffering wife, of course, who is always a superb help and without whom I could scarcely tie my shoes): My teaching assistant,... Read more
As happens multiple times per week, a new item has appeared on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: In God’s Image and Likeness 2: Enoch, Noah, and the Tower of Babel: Excursus, Bibliography, References & Indexes Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in In God’s Image and Likeness 2: Enoch, Noah, and the Tower of Babel (2014) by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw and David J. Larsen. Abstract: The sections of the excursus explore three important... Read more
I share, here, some notes that I’ve taken from John W. Welch, et al., eds. Knowing Why: 137 Evidences That the Book of Mormon Is True (American Fork: Covenant Communications, 2017). [In other words, this blog entry is partially made up of notes taken from a book. These notes are notes. From a book. The article from which the notes were taken is identified. I do not pretend that my notes here represent original research on my... Read more
Some further notes from Alister E. McGrath, Darwinism and the Divine: Evolutionary Thought and Natural Theology (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011): So are the structures and symbols of the observed world self-contained and self-referential? Or might they hint at a deeper structure or level of meaning to the world, transcending what can be known through experience or observation? Christianity regards nature as a limiting horizon to the unaided human gaze, which nevertheless possesses a created capacity, when rightly interpreted, to point... Read more
The principal action of Acts 2 occurs on Pentecost, as Acts 2:1 explains: “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.” The mainstream Christian holy day of Pentecost, which is still celebrated fifty days after Easter Sunday — meaning, of course, that it too always occurs on a Sunday — recalls the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the apostles and other disciples of Jesus while they were in Jerusalem marking the Festival of... Read more
Hyrum L. Andrus and Helen Mae Andrus, Personal Glimpses of the Prophet Joseph Smith (American Fork, UT: Covenant Communications, 2009), 1856 interview of Emma Smith by Edmund C. Briggs: While she talked to us the tears flowed from her large, bright eyes like rain, and I could see in every act affection for Joseph. (28) She spoke very affectionately of Joseph and said “I never had any reason to oppose him, for we were always on the best... Read more
I’m something of a fan of the Claremont philosopher Stephen T. Davis, who is a believing Christian. Here are some passages that I’ve marked in his book After We Die: Theology, Philosophy, and the Question of Life after Death (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2015. He’s talking about the period between death and resurrection: Temporary disembodiment is the theory that strikes me, as it has struck most theologians in Christian history, as the most plausible. (60) This happens... Read more
I offer here some thoughts that occurred to me as I read Acts 1 this morning. They regard the literality of the early Christian claim of Christ’s resurrection. For this blog entry (and for the sake of clarity and freshness), I’ll be using the English Standard Version (ESV) for the English text, unless I expressly indicate otherwise: Acts 1:1-2: In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach,2 until... Read more
A week or two ago, I signed a contract to speak at BYU Education Week in August of this year. At this point, of course, I don’t know whether there will be a physical Education Week on the BYU campus. I’ve been told that those in charge are still moving cautiously forward with plans for a gathering in Provo and, so far as I’m aware, that’s still the case. Let us hope. If it’s ultimately decided not to... Read more
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