An interesting article:   Francis and Benedict: Two popes, two divergent approaches to Islam   Two personal notes:   1.   As I pointed out before, Gabriel Said Reynolds, prominently cited in this article, is the co-author of one of the volumes published by the Islamic Translation Series that I conceived and, until 2012, led at Brigham Young University:   https://www.amazon.com/Critique-Christian-Origins-English-Arabic-Translation/dp/084252715X/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8   2.   I was lecturing about Islam on behalf of the area presidency in Australia and... Read more

    A very interesting article about what looks to be a very interesting book:   http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2017/05/02/muslim-fears-and-muslim-rights/   It’s worth pointing out, by the way, that Joseph Smith’s charter for the city of Nauvoo guaranteed full liberty to “Mahometans,” even though it’s very possible that neither Joseph nor any other residents of Nauvoo had ever actually met a Muslim by that time.   It’s perhaps likewise worthy of observing that, in the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, the leaders of... Read more

    If you were watching earlier this year, you might have noticed an intriguing story that appeared in a number of places, including this one:   “Austrian Town Seeks Professional Hermit”   Some folks I know, unmarried and perhaps rather anti-social, might have been quite interested.  (I suspect, however, that the successful applicant needed to be Roman Catholic).   Unfortunately, though, I read this morning in the British magazine The Week that the position has been filled:   “Saalfelden, Austria.... Read more

    The first night we were here, we contented ourselves with sharing a steak and ale pie and a chicken and mushroom pie in the Marble Arch district.  Very British.   Last night, we had very good Punjabi food at a restaurant in Covent Garden called, oddly, “Punjab.”  Excellent food, including the best naan I’ve ever tasted.   But that was not until we had spent several hours in the Egyptian sculpture hall of the British Museum, followed by... Read more

    On our ride from Heathrow Airport into London yesterday, we had an amusing, curious, knowledgeable, and talkative cab driver.   At one point, he asked where in the States we were from.  When we answered “Utah,” saying that we had just flown in from Salt Lake City, he was thoughtful for a moment.  Then he asked, “Isn’t that where those Mormons live?”  He had, he said, just watched a really fascinating item on television about a Mormon in Utah with... Read more

    I first met Elder Alexander B. Morrison, since 2000 an emeritus member of the Seventy, many years ago, while he was still an actively serving General Authority.  I very much appreciate him, and I appreciate his work on this particular cause:   http://www.ldsliving.com/7-Dangerous-Myths-We-Tell-Ourselves-About-Mental-Illness/s/85139?utm_source=ldsliving&utm_medium=email   Posted from London, England     Read more

    Somebody sent me a question the other day — I’m going to have to search to see who it was; I was simply under too much pressure from deadlines and trip preparations to attend to it at the time it arrived — about the origin of the seven-day week.   This article is just slightly relevant to that question.  Indeed, it’s scarcely relevant at all.  But not quite totally irrelevant.  Anyhow, it’s a rather interesting and educational piece... Read more

    An interesting question based upon a intriguing set of hypothetical possibilities:   Where Should We Look For Ancient Civilizations in the Solar System?   Posted from London, England     Read more

    http://scripturalmormonism.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/michael-heiser-responding-to-matt-slick.html   This is a topic of particular interest to me, as reflected in an article that I published with the old Maxwell Institute:   “‘Ye Are Gods’: Psalm 82 and John 10 as Witnesses to the Divine Nature of Humankind”   Posted from London, England     Read more

    An interesting opinion piece on the recent brief by “Mormon scholars” — I, too, was among the nineteen signers — regarding Mr. Trump’s executive orders on immigration:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865678972/Spencer-Fluhman-The-coming-reconfiguration-of-Latter-day-Saint-politics.html   I wonder whether the argument or prediction is right.  In some ways, as both a Latter-day Saint and a serious political conservative — which I don’t confuse with one another, although I don’t think they’re entirely distinct — I’m not altogether sure that I hope that it is.  Though I... Read more