I published a new article in Meridian Magazine yesterday, and I hope that somebody, somewhere, will read it: “Did Christ Visit England?” Our superb Latter-day Saint guide here in the United Kingdom, Peter Fagg, shared a couple of quotations with us a few days back that, with his kind help, I want to share with you. The first comes from President Lorenzo Snow. On 1 January 1901, in the Tabernacle of the Church of Jesus Christ... Read more
A young Englishwoman named Emma Jackson (1830-1885) converted to the church by 1852 if not earlier, because, by that year, she was in Liverpool preparing to emigrate to Zion. While still there in Liverpool she met a fellow convert named Samuel Lorenzo Adams (1833-1910). Eventually, Brother Adams was called into the office of the Presiding Elder — very possibly Elder Franklin D. Richards of the Twelve — and was informed that he could sail the next day. This... Read more
Charles W. Penrose (1832–1925) was born into a relatively prosperous family in London, England. When, at eighteen years of age, he was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1850, his mother — who was by then a widow — disowned him and, albeit sorrowfully, he left her behind along with his three sisters. Approximately a year after his baptism, Penrose was called to serve as a missionary for the Church throughout... Read more
We’re lodging not terribly far from Stonyhurst College, a residential school (formerly for boys only, but now coeducational) that has been ranked as the foremost Jesuit prep school in the English-speaking world and described as “Eton for Catholics.” We drove by it early this evening after dinner. The Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins taught classics at Stonyhurst, and his poems are said to feature details drawn from the local countryside. Given the idyllic beauty of this area, it... Read more
Two new articles went up today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: “The Holy Ghost in the Book of Moroni: Possessed of Charity,” written by Newell D. Wright and Val Larsen Abstract: The role played by the Holy Ghost is an especially important connecting thread that runs through the Book of Moroni. The book illuminates the various ways in which the Holy Ghost transforms fallen human beings into redeemed members of the kingdom of God. Three phrases —... Read more
After a long day’s drive via country roads from Edinburgh via Hadrian’s Wall and the small market town of Alston, which has a Latter-day Saint historical connection, we’ve finally arrived at the justly famous Lake District, which is known not only for its beauty but for its association with William Wordsworth (1770-1850) and other notable poets and writers associated with English Romanticism. Not very far from us is Dove Cottage, in the village of Grasmere, which is famous... Read more
I’m not at all sure why, but, although I’ve visited Scotland on several previous occasions (including that wonderful week in my early twenties at St. Andrews) and although I have an unaccountable affection for the Celtic cross, last year was the first time that I had really felt the pull of my Scots ancestral line. I’ve long had a deep attachment to Norway, and I’m an Anglophile already, without regard to family heritage — though happily I have... Read more
I have an anthology back home of the worst poems in the English language. It’s one of my most treasured possessions. Like Peter Schickele’s Definitive Biography of P.D.Q. Bach, and Kehlog Albran’s The Profit, it has brought tears of laughter to my eyes whenever I’ve opened it to sup from its pages. So it was an unexpected thrill today, while visiting Grayfriars Kirkyard during our walking tour of Edinburgh, to be shown the grave — or, anyway, a... Read more
Here’s a nice piece by Jeff Lindsay that I commend to your attention: “Cherishing the Book of Mormon’s Teachings on the Fairness of God” *** I’ve posted several items recently on what is sometimes called “the hard problem of consciousness,” on the question of what subjective awareness is and how consciousness arises (if it does) from the physical brain. Some reductionists, faced with what seems to be an intractable problem, perhaps an insoluble one, have taken... Read more
We drove through Aberdeen today — we’ve been in Aberdeenshire pretty much the whole time that we’ve been in Scotland — and it got me to thinking about the great James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879), who was a Scot — born in Edinburgh — and who was affiliated for a few years with the University of Aberdeen. I make no claim of originality for what follows. I’ve simply culled some things from the Wikipedia article on Maxwell that interested... Read more
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