I published this column in the Deseret News about two and a half weeks before Christmas 2013:   The first verse of the popular late-19th-century Christmas carol “Away in a Manger” (often mistakenly attributed to Martin Luther) ends peacefully with “the little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay.” Unfortunately, though, “The cattle are lowing; the poor baby wakes, but little Lord Jesus no crying he makes.” Richard Mouw, the prominent Calvinist theologian who just completed two decades as president... Read more

    In 2014, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture began publishing specially commissioned personal essays at Christmas and Easter.  As of today, we’ve published a total of six such pieces.  Here are the three Christmas essays that have appeared thus far:   First, by the Latter-day Saint novelist Orson Scott Card:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/christmas-is-about-a-baby/   Second, a Christmas essay by Clayton Christensen of Harvard Business School:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/he-did-it-a-christmas-message/   And that was followed by a Christmas message from Sharon Eubank, the director of LDS... Read more

    Concluding the third chapter of the manuscript of my book on Islam for Latter-day Saints:   Umar was assassinated in 644 A.D. and was succeeded by a gentle if weak old man named Uthman.[1] He was assassinated, in turn, in 656 A.D., and finally it was Ali’s turn to assume the caliph­ate. It seemed for a while that the dreams of the Shiites had come true, or at least that they were about to do so. But conditions... Read more

    Some very raw notes from part of a manuscript:   “He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do; and that my name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people.”... Read more

    A thought on science and religion from the late Hugh Nibley:   Science represents a high court from whose judgment there is no appeal, the idea (Freud expresses it in his The Future of Illusion) . . . that all other judgments are outmoded traditions; [that] the judges are free from prejudice and bias, and above petty personal interests, if they let the facts speak for themselves; that they suspend all judgment until all the facts have been... Read more

    I like this statement from my friend Don Bradley, and repost it here with his permission:   I want to share part of my faith here with those who aren’t familiar with it, and to testify of it to them, to my co-religionists, and to my children. The prophet-founder of my faith declared one of its foundational principles to be gathering up truth, wherever it may be found: “It is one of the grand fundamental principles of Mormonism... Read more

    Just back from Abravanel Hall, where, with friends and some relatives, we enjoyed “A Broadway Christmas” with Brian Stokes Mitchell and the Utah Symphony (under the direction of Randall Craig Fleischer).     Before walking over to Abravanel Hall, we gathered with some of our friends and neighbors for what has become a Christmas tradition: a buffet dinner in The Roof Restaurant, atop the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, with its magnificent view of the Salt Lake Temple and the... Read more

We are pushed onto this earthly stage in the middle of the play that has been going on for thousands of years; we want to play an intelligent part and, in whispers, ask some of the older actors what this is all about—what are we supposed to be doing? And we soon learn that they know as little about it as we do.Who can tell us the plot of the play? The sophic mind assures us that the play is... Read more

    A few more of my rather raw notes toward an eventual manuscript*:   “At the fundamental level,” observes physicist David Gross, “nature, for whatever reason, prefers beauty.”[1]   Science writer K. C. Cole says that “the same properties that make a snowflake appealing underlie the laws that control the universe.  Truth and beauty are two sides of a coin.”[2]  “The selfsame symmetries . . . appeal to the senses in  art and music and natural forms like snowflakes... Read more

    Just back from the 2017 Christmas concert of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Orchestra at Temple Square, and the Bells on Temple Square.  The special guests this year were Sutton Foster and Hugh Bonneville.  We had a very good time, and it was made even better by find ourselves, purely coincidentally, seated by very good friends.   ***   Walking around and through Temple Square and listening to the Christmas music, I’m grateful that my reaction to the... Read more