If you’re in Utah or planning to be in Utah between now and sometime in October, you really should stop by the free, full-scale, outdoor “Tabernacle of the Old Testament” exhibit that is running in various locations here. Currently, in fact, and continuing on through 15 August, the Tabernacle stands on the park area immediately adjacent to my own Orem stake center. Another reproduction of the Tabernacle is in South Jordan through this Wednesday, 2 August, and will... Read more
I’m sitting on an open-air balcony looking across a golf course up at the mountains during a gentle but solid rain. The aroma is delicious. Life can be very good. The remarks below are based largely though not quite entirely upon Roger Trigg, Does science undermine faith? (London: Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, 1918), 1-11. Roger Trigg is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick and Senior Research Fellow at the Ian Ramsey Centre... Read more
Earlier this year, in preparation for sitting down to interview Professor Alexander in connection with the Interpreter Foundation’s Six Days in August film project, I re-read Thomas G. Alexander, Brigham Young and the Expansion of the Mormon Faith (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019). That interview with him — he’s been a friend of ours for many years now — will eventually figure in the docudrama portion of the Foundation’s film effort. Here are some passages from his very good... Read more
Some of you, I think, will enjoy this: “How to watch the Tabernacle Choir’s pilot of ‘Music & the Spoken Word’ in Spanish: The Spanish pilot of the Tabernacle Choir’s ‘Music & the Spoken Word’ airs Sunday, July 30” There is much food for thought in the survey data reported here. I’m not sure whether to be encouraged or discouraged: “Where Boomer Faith in God Is Low, Gen Z Belief Is Up: What nearly 20,000 people in 26... Read more
Two new items went up on Friday on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: “Nephi’s Eight Years in the “Wilderness”: Reconsidering Definitions and Details,” written by Godfrey J. Ellis Abstract: A traditional reading of Nephi’s chronicle of the trek through Arabia relies heavily on two verses in 1 Nephi 17. In verse 4, Nephi states that they “did sojourn for the space of many years, yea, even eight years in the wilderness.” In verse 5, he reports that... Read more
“2023 FAIR Conference: Ticket sales close on July 28! Save your spot now!“ I disagreed fairly comprehensively with what I knew of her views on politics and religion, but I did and do love her rendition of “Nothing Compares 2 U”: “Singer, activist Sinead O’Connor has died at the age of 56: O’Connor, the controversial Irish singer-songwriter who transformed Prince’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ into a power ballad that became a No. 1 hit worldwide, died of unknown... Read more
Newly posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation “Conference Talks: The Future Isn’t What It Used to Be,” originally presented by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw on Saturday, 12 March 2016, at the 2016 Second Interpreter Science & Mormonism Symposium: Body, Brain, Mind, and Spirit. Moreover, two new items went up yesterday on the Interpreter Foundation’s website: Come, Follow Me — New Testament Study and Teaching Helps: Lesson 32, July 31 — August 6: Acts 22–28 — “A Minister... Read more
I’ve been thinking today, as I sometimes do, of the perils of reliance upon translators and translations. In such pondering, a specific book often comes to mind, Curiously, and although I own a copy of it, even now I still haven’t read the entirety of Alexander Kinglake’s 1844 book Eothen; or Traces of travel brought home from the East. But one particular passage — a fictional conversation between an English visitor and an Ottoman (Osmanli) pasha by means... Read more
I read a really interesting article in the New York Times today, about a recent expedition led by Avi Loeb. I don’t know how many of you, if any, will be able to access it. Just in case you can, though, here’s a link to it: “Scientist’s Deep Dive for Alien Life Leaves His Peers Dubious: Avi Loeb, a Harvard astrophysicist, says that material recovered from the seafloor could be from an extraterrestrial spacecraft. His peers are skeptical.”... Read more
Tomorrow is Pioneer Day — a legal holiday in Utah, but an anniversary that is observed, in one way or another, by many Latter-day Saints beyond the borders of my adopted home state. (Please see my 21 July 2023 article in Meridian Magazine.) On Saturday, 22 July, after joining the audience for the annual Pioneer Day parade in Cokeville, Wyoming, my wife and I were the speakers in the church there for their Pioneer Day program. We drove... Read more
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