![\"Paris](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2018\/06\/Notre_Dame_de_Paris_from_pont_de_la_Tournelle_Paris_22_March_2014.jpg\")
<\/a>(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Several years ago, before the devastating fire that severely damaged it on 15 April 2019, my wife and I spent a substantial portion of the day in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. \u00a0At one place, in the transept to the right of the nave near the southern rose window, we saw a plaque commemorating the conversion of the prominent French poet, playwright, and diplomat Paul Claudel (1868-1955), eventually the recipient of multiple nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature:<\/p>\n
Ici se convertit Paul Claudel<\/em>.<\/p>\n In his precocious youth, Claudel had come under the influence of the agnosticism and atheism that were beginning to dominate French intellectual life. \u00a0He had even won a prize in school that had been personally awarded to him by Ernest Renan (1823-1892), the French scholar and writer who is most famous for his bestselling 1863 book\u00a0Vie de J\u00e9sus<\/i>, which, very controversially, had set out to \u201cdemythologize\u201d the New Testament and to present Jesus as nothing but a mortal man.<\/p>\n However, Claudel was never fully satisfied with his life as an unbeliever. \u00a0He continued to read widely on religious subjects, overcoming many of his intellectual reservations but unable to feel any spiritual conviction.<\/p>\n On Christmas Day in 1886, when he was eighteen years of age, Claudel attended High Mass at the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, celebrated by the city\u2019s still relatively new archbishop. He wasn\u2019t particularly moved by the liturgy. \u00a0But he later returned for vespers, the evening service. \u201cIt was the gloomiest winter day,\u201d he later recalled, \u201cand the darkest rainy afternoon over Paris.\u201d<\/p>\n He listened patiently to the recitation of the psalms. \u00a0Then, as\u00a0the cathedral choir was singing the\u00a0Magnificat<\/em>, something happened:<\/p>\n \u201cIn an instant, my heart was touched and I believed. I believed with such a strength of adherence, with such an uplifting of my entire being, with such powerful conviction, with such a certainty leaving no room for any kind of doubt, that since then all the books, all the arguments, all the incidents and accidents of a busy life have been unable to shake my faith, nor indeed to affect it in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n As others also have, I find his account of what he himself called his \u201cconversion\u201d striking, and entirely understandable. \u00a0I hope that the plaque will still be there after the fire and the cathedral\u2019s restoration.<\/p>\n Conversion comes in many ways. \u00a0Sometimes, as in the case of Paul Claudel, it comes as an immediate insight or intuition, transcending reason but not opposing it..<\/p>\n The Interpreter Foundation continues to spew out a steady stream of my trademark vituperation and bile. \u00a0Here are some of its latest volleys against decency, kindness, and human good:<\/p>\n Conference Talks: \u201cThe Word of My Power\u201d: The Divine Word in the Book of Moses<\/em>: 2020 Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses Conference<\/a><\/p>\n Matthew L. Bowen spoke at the Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses Conference on Saturday, September 19, 2020 about \u201c\u2018The Word of My Power\u2019: The Divine Word in the Book of Moses.\u201d His paper frames the divine \u201cword\u201d as a narrative thread in Moses 1\u20138 that has implications for the nature of the Genesis material quoted in the Book of Mormon and the nature of parts of JST Genesis as restored text.<\/p>\n All of the conference presentations were filmed, and both video and audio recordings of each presentation are available. Videos, audio recordings and transcripts are available at https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/conferences\/2020-book-of-moses-conference\/papers\/<\/a>. The videos are also available on the Interpreter Foundation YouTube channel at https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/theinterpreterfoundation<\/a>. A YouTube playlist is also available at https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLRMn4gyXMWLv7A618LA-cCvxMqWRk8kxI<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Nibley Lectures: Come, Follow Me<\/em> Book of Mormon Lesson 13 \u201cHe Shall Rise \u2026 with Healing in His Wings\u201d (Easter)<\/a><\/p>\n During 1988, 1989, and 1990, Hugh Nibley taught Honors Book of Mormon classes for four semesters at Brigham Young University. The lectures were video-taped and audio cassettes and printed transcripts were made of the lectures. We believe these recordings will be interesting to listen to and valuable to your Come, Follow Me<\/em> study program this year. Each week, we will include the lectures covering the Book of Mormon chapters being studied that week.<\/p>\n This week, we divert from the Book of Mormon lectures to present a reading of Nibley\u2019s talk on \u201cEaster and the Prophets\u201d from the 1954 radio series \u201cTime Vindicates the Prophets.\u201d This talk is available both as an audio recording below and in ePub, Kindle and hard cover versions of The World and the Prophets, The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley Volume 3,\u201d<\/em> available at Amazon<\/a>, Deseret Book<\/a>, and Barnes & Noble<\/a>.<\/p>\n All 112 Book of Mormon lectures are immediately available in PDF, audio, video, and electronic formats, as well as in paperback books that are available for purchase. Links for all of the available online sources can be found in the Complete Bibliography for Hugh Nibley at https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/bibliographies\/hugh-w-nibley\/lectures\/<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Book of Mormon in Context Lesson 13: \u201cHe Shall Rise \u2026 with Healing in His Wings\u201d (Easter)<\/a><\/p>\n During the 3 March 2024 Come, Follow Me<\/em> segment of the Interpreter Radio Show, discussants Hales Swift, Brent Schmidt, and Martin Tanner focused on Book of Mormon lesson 13, \u201cHe Shall Rise \u2026 with Healing in His Wings,\u201d the lesson for Easter.<\/p>\n Delivered from commercial breaks, a recording of their conversation has now been made available online, at no charge, for your listening enjoyment. \u00a0The other segments of the 3 March 2024 radio program can be accessed at https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/interpreter-radio-show-march-3-2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n Each and every week, the Interpreter Radio Show can be heard live on Sunday evenings from 7 to 9 PM (MDT), on K-TALK, AM 1640. \u00a0Or, if you prefer or if you live outside of the Salt Lake Valley, you can listen live on the Internet at ktalkmedia.com<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/a>