“Christians, have we understood the great responsibility that we have taken on before God through baptism? Have we come to know that we must conduct ourselves as children of God, that we must align our will with the will of God, that we must remain free from sin, that we must love God with all our hearts and always patiently await union with Him? Have we thought about the fact that our heart should be so filled with... Read more

    Continuing with a manuscript that I’m actually working on currently:   What really interested the earliest rabbis was the collection and organization of the so-called “oral law,” the traditions that had already been gathering about the text of the Torah for centuries. This was the next layer, the next level of sediment in the mounting deposit of what would come to be modern rabbinic Judaism. It culminated in the completion of the Mishnah, around the year 200 A.D.... Read more

    “I syng of a mayden” is a Middle English poem, perfectly suited to the Christmas season, that was written around AD 1400.  I give you, first, the original.  You’ll understand most of it if you pay close attention.  But I’ve followed that up with a modern English version, just in case:   I syng of a mayden That is makeles, king of alle kinges to here sone che chees. He cam also stille Ther his moder was As... Read more

    There’s a campaign brewing:   “Former LDS bishop calls for church leaders to stop interviewing teens about sexual practices”   I’ve read online complaints about sex-related questions in bishops’ worthiness interviews for quite a few years now.   I have to say, though, that I never experienced anything like the “predatory” questioning — to borrow a term used in the article (by someone with whom I agree) — that’s alleged by some critics of the Church.  Nor did my wife.... Read more

    Continuing with a preliminary brief account (from one of my manuscripts in progress) of the early history of Islam under the second caliph, ‘Umar b. al-Khattab:   These were astonishing conquests, rapid and seemingly without end, and it was not only the ancient Christians who saw them as fortunate (indeed, perhaps even as God-ordained). Parley P. Pratt was enthused about them as well. “Now,” he said, if we take Mahometanism during those dark ages, and the cor­ruptions that... Read more

    The evolution of the universe can be likened to a display of fireworks that has just ended: some few wisps, ashes and smoke.  Standing on a well-chilled cinder, we see the fading of the suns, and try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds. Father Georges Lemaître, the mathematician and physicist who first formulated the concept of the “Big Bang”[1]   [1] As quoted in Martin Rees, Before the Beginning (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1997),... Read more

    Thanks to Russell Stevenson for reminding me of this choice passage from Orson Pratt’s essay on “The Absurdities of Immaterialism”:   “If, at death, his followers are to be made like him, they will enjoy, with some of the modern Pagans, all the beauties of annihilation. To be made like him! Admirable thought! How transcendently sublime to behold an innumerable multitude of unextended nothings, casting their crowns at the feet of the great, unextended, infinite Nothing, filling all... Read more

    Just up, in Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, two new book reviews:  “An Important Year in History”) and “Janus Parallelism in the Book of Job: A Review of Scott B. Noel’s Work.”   Today marks the 280th Friday in a row that Interpreter has published at least one article or review.  The Interpreter Foundation has existed for 281.5 weeks.   This represents a considerable achievement.  It results from the efforts and the generosity of many people, and I’m profoundly... Read more

    I posted this blog entry back on 31 July.  However, since this claim about Richard Bushman and the alleged “falsehood” of “the dominant narrative” of Mormon history came up again last night in a conversation that I noticed, I think I should probably post it again:   There is a short YouTube video making the rounds — I don’t know whether or not it was recorded with his permission — in which Richard Bushman, whom I consider a friend, is... Read more