I would like to call your attention to an evening event later this month that, in its turn, was called to my attention by my friend and BYU colleague Ralph Hancock:   “Becoming Whole: From Secular Learning to Religious Living” — Hosted by Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Inc., and The Wheatley Institution Thursday, January 17, 2019 at 7 PM – 8:30 PM What constitutes a whole education? Join us for a public lecture and Q&A with Dr. Harrison Kleiner... Read more

    There are some very embarrassing people associated with the Republican Party.  And no, I’m not referring here to the most obvious one.  (And please don’t assume that I’m saying that the Democrats are without blemish; I am, after all, a life-long and very serious political conservative who has had a strong commitment to free market economics since his teens.  I can scarcely endorse today’s Democratic Party.)   Consider, for example, this appalling story:   “Local Texas GOP rejects... Read more

    The following announcement went up on Friday evening on both of the websites of the Interpreter Foundation:   On behalf of the board of trustees of The Interpreter Foundation and consistent with the counsel of President Russell M. Nelson, I’m pleased to announce that we are renaming the Foundation’s principal regular publication. It will now be known as  Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship Not only will the journal be renamed but, over the relatively... Read more

    Do Muslims and Christians worship the same God?   Slightly more than three years ago, David French, for whom I have great respect and with whom I typically agree — he and his wife even headed up “Evangelicals for Mitt” during both the 2008 and 2012 primary and general election seasons — published an article saying “No”:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/428763/christians-muslims-same-god-wheaton-college   He was wrong.   Responding to the same case, Francis Beckwith (who has a lengthy history of sharp... Read more

    “Why Michael Shermer’s ‘Case for Scientific Humanism’ Fails”   I debated Michael Shermer in Las Vegas, Nevada, on 12 July 2018, at that year’s meeting of the annual libertarian gathering called FreedomFest:   “Is Faith Compatible with Reason?”   ***   Interesting:   “Scientists may have seen birth of a black hole for first time ever: Stellar debris lit up the night sky with a bright light”   ***   Not infrequently, I come across rather smugly superior statements... Read more

    New, in Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture:   “Light and Perspective: Essays from the Mormon Theology Seminar on 1 Nephi 1 and Jacob 7”   Abstract: The Mormon Theology Seminar has produced two volumes of essays exploring 1 Nephi 1 on Lehi’s initial visions, and Jacob 7 on the encounter with Sherem. These essays provide valuable insights from a range of perspectives and raise questions for further discussion both of issues raised and regarding different paradigms in which scholars operate that readers must navigate.  ... Read more

    I consider the London-based Economist perhaps the finest single magazine in English-speaking world.  And I’m far from alone in that.  On some issues, though not all, it leans a bit to my left, but its international coverage is absolutely superb.  (American news media seldom pay much attention to international events:  I recall a couple of old Saturday Night Live “Weekend Update” skits from many years ago.  One of them began with something like “Our top story of the evening:... Read more

    The 6 January 2019 installment of the Interpreter Radio Show is now available online. In it, Neal Rappleye, Jasmin Rappleye, Stephen Smoot, and Hales Swift discuss the new two-hour block, excitement at the temple, Grant Hardy’s new study edition of the Book of Mormon, and John chapter 1 (Come, Follow Me Lesson 4):   https://interpreterfoundation.org/interpreter-radio-show-january-6-2019/   An extract from the broadcast is also available as “Audio Roundtable: Come, Follow Me New Testament Lesson 4: We Have Found the Messiah.“   ***   I... Read more

    This article appeared today both in the print edition of the Deseret News and online at LDS Living:   “What C.S. Lewis Can Help Us Understand About Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith”   My love for the writing of C. S. Lewis is of long standing.  Here, for instance, is a blog entry that I posted back on 8 February  2012:   I’ve recently finished re-reading C. S. Lewis’s “Chronicles of Narnia” — I must have read them... Read more

    This article of mine appeared in the Deseret News for 8 April 2010:   Oliver Cowdery can plausibly be considered the co-founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Commonly called the church’s “second elder” and, at one time, its “assistant president,” he wrote most of the Book of Mormon out by hand from dictation as Joseph Smith’s principal scribe, recopied the entire manuscript for the printer, and, as one of the Three Witnesses, beheld the... Read more