As a conservative, I’m far from displeased with everything that has been done by the Trump administration. But I continue to be very concerned about Mr. Trump himself. You may or may not be able to gain access to it — I can’t give you access, legally — but this Wall Street Journal article by Peggy Noonan is an important one: “What Bob Corker Sees in Trump” In case you haven’t followed what Senator Corker... Read more
From some notes toward a future book: As Melvin J. Thorne has observed, “there are features of the Book of Mormon that make it so complex that it is simply not credible that Joseph Smith could be the author of the book in any normal sense. It is too complex to have been written by Joseph in the manner and in the amount of time described by witnesses.”[1] The Book of Mormon discusses scores if not hundreds... Read more
Continuing with one of the manuscripts: It would be wrong, however, to suggest that the old power and beauty had gone out of the Qur’an by the Medinan period. Passages like the so-called “Light Verse,” which some modern commentators believe refers to the lighted altar of a seventh-century Christian church, conclusively demonstrate that this was not so: God is the Light of the heavens and the earth; the likeness of His Light is as a niche wherein... Read more
From another of those unfinished manuscripts: The Book of Mormon is remarkably complex. For instance, it claims to be the work of multiple authors, some of whose writings have then been redacted and abridged by a later one. The first of these authors is named Nephi, and he probably wrote his book late in his life, looking back at the events he had witnessed. He is trying to explain why he, the fourth of six brothers, was... Read more
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 things that were critical of his some of his work. But I’ve also liked a lot of what he’s done — especially his early articles — and... Read more
Dr. Ian H. Hutchinson is Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with a primary research interest in plasma physics. In this passage from his book Monopolizing Knowledge, he takes aim at “reductionism”: It is the assertion, or more usually unspoken presumption, that when a satisfactory scientific explanation at a reduced level exists, such an explanation trumps, invalidates, or explains away understanding at higher levels: that the higher level descriptions lose their force... Read more
Closely related to the obligations felt by a host toward his guests is the notion of generosity, which was one of the leading virtues of a pre-Islamic Arabian hero. And, of all those heroes, there’s one whose name became virtually synonymous in subsequent Arab tradition with the idea of generosity—Hatim of Tayyi. He is once reputed to have said to his wife Mawiyya, The guest’s slave am I, it’s true, as long as he stays with me, / Although... Read more
As a former director of the Center for the Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts (CPART), a division of what was then FARMS but later became the Maxwell Institute, and as someone who was present at the very creation — indeed, as a former chairman of the board of FARMS who was closely affiliated with the organization for twenty-four years — I’m saddened to see this: “CPART’s season at the Maxwell Institute comes to an end” Those... Read more
On 21 August 1883, James H. Hart, a Latter-day Saint journalist who was, at various times, editor of the Bear Lake Democrat (later the Southern Idaho Independent) and associate editor of the Paris [Idaho] Post, interviewed David Whitmer, the last surviving Witness to the Book of Mormon. According to the late Professor Edward L. Hart, “James H. Hart’s Contribution to Our Knowledge of Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer” (BYU Studies 36:4 [1996-1997]: 118-124), James Hart used a form of Pitman shorthand... Read more
Another passage from one of my books in progress: The new gospel preached by Jesus and Paul and the other apostles was, in a certain sense, the universal reformed Judaism of which Hellenistic reformers—at least those of the better sort—had long dreamed. The blessings of Abraham were now available to all, provided only that they accepted Jesus and his teachings. “There is,” wrote Paul, “neither Jew nor Greek . . . for ye are all one in... Read more
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