I would like to call your attention to a lecture that will be given tomorrow (Thursday) night in West Jordan, Utah. I will be unable to attend it owing to a prior engagement, but I would go if I could: A Stone Manger – Christmas Insights From the Land of Israel Take a trip back in time, before the Christmas traditions we have today even existed — back in time to Nazareth and Jerusalem and Bethlehem... Read more
Bill Hamblin and I wrote a regular column on world religions for the Provo Daily Herald for two or three years. It was, in a way, his idea. We had both been irritated by a previous columnist, an Evangelical Protestant minister who routinely suggested that religions other than his were satanic deceptions and who routinely got the facts wrong. Bill suggested that we write a response to one of his columns. We did, and the Herald editors asked... Read more
I’m shocked and in deep sorrow. My long-time friend and colleague Bill Hamblin passed away suddenly earlier today. I don’t know any details; I’ve only just now confirmed the truth of the report. It sounds like a heart attack, but I don’t know. I first met Bill when he and I were both studying in Cairo. I was already there; he came over for a year at the Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA), something of a... Read more
Continued from “Memories of interreligious “trialogue” (I)”: When I arrived for the beginning of the Jewish/Christian/Muslim “trialogue” in Graz in January 1993, things were just a bit awkward. I was something of an odd man out, just as Gillian Sorenson had predicted I would be. The others had been meeting previously, sometimes for years. I was new intruder, and, although a Christian, not considered an orthodox or mainstream one — and, although trained in Islamic studies, not... Read more
“Science & Mormonism Series 1: Cosmos, Earth, and Man: Frequently Asked Questions about Science and Genesis” Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw originally appeared in Science & Mormonism Series 1: Cosmos, Earth, and Man (2016). Abstract: This chapter answers thirty-five questions on topics where science and scholarship meet the scriptures, such as the authorship of Genesis, the Creation, evolution of humankind, the Garden of Eden, the fruits of the Tree of Knowledge... Read more
Some insist on reading what I’ve been writing here as my argument that it’s perfectly fine for a Church to look like and behave like a typical American business or corporation, to be motivated by the same profit incentives that motivate profit-seeking corporations — while exploiting tax breaks that properly pertain only to legitimate churches and non-profits — and that corporate culture is somehow intrinsically good. I’m arguing none of these things. Fundamentally, I do not... Read more
I posted the item below in October 2017, and it seems directly relevant to the topic that I’ve been pursuing in this series of blog entries: I listened late tonight (Monday night) to an interview with historian D. Michael Quinn, on the Mormon News Report. I highly recommend the interview. (It begins at just about precisely the 45-minute mark of the podcast.) In the past, I’ve been critical of some of Mike Quinn’s writing, and I’ve published... Read more
Here are two of my favorite comments from the late American astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science popularizer Carl Sagan: “How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, ‘This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant?’ Instead they say, ‘No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.’ A religion, old or new, that stressed... Read more
In a very recent blog entry here (“A memory from southeastern Austria”), I recalled an experience that I had many years ago in connection with an interfaith “trialogue” in Graz, Austria. I’ve been asked to say something more about that experience, so here’s a bit more — which will take two installments to record fully. (One of my purposes in maintaining this blog is to work on autobiographical sketches.) I had come to know the late James... Read more
For at least a few critics of Church finances, the issue seems to be, to some extent anyway, one of aesthetics and politics. I have particularly in mind a certain critic — not surprisingly, an academic in an exceptionally impractical field (we’re akin, in that regard) — who has objected for years to the “corporate” character of the Church. His politics, so far as I can tell, trend distinctly leftward, and he apparently dislikes and distrusts business and... Read more
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