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<\/a>(Fair Use, from the official Church website)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n A new \u201cpre-print\u201d has appeared on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Enoch and the Gathering of Zion: <\/em>The Witness of Ancient Texts for Modern Scripture<\/em><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Bradshaw, Jeffrey M.\u00a0Enoch and the Gathering of Zion: The Witness of Ancient Texts for Modern Scripture<\/em>. Orem, Springville, and Salt Lake City, UT: The Interpreter Foundation, Book of Mormon Central, and Eborn Books, 2021.\u00a0https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/books\/enoch-and-the-gathering-of-zion\/<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Have a look at it.\u00a0 There\u2019s still time to get a copy of the book before Christmas.\u00a0 It would be an excellent gift \u2014 both for yourself and<\/em> for somebody else.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In fact, now that I\u2019m thinking about it, any book from the Interpreter Foundation would make a wonderful Christmas gift (https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/books\/<\/a>) and so too would a copy of the DVD of the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s theatrical film, Witnesses<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 Have you been stuck for gift ideas?\u00a0 In a panic?\u00a0 Growing desperate?\u00a0 No longer!\u00a0 (You\u2019re welcome.)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And here \u2014 \u2019tis the season! \u2014 are links to three previous articles from Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em>:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cLatter-day Houses of the Lord: Developments in Their Design and Function,\u201d<\/a> by Richard O. Cowan<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Abstract:\u00a0<\/strong>This essay\u00a0traces the modern-day usage and understanding of temples from the Kirtland Temple to Nauvoo and the Salt Lake Temple. Architecture was used to teach principles. While the Kirtland Temple was preparatory (think of the vision of Christ and the conference of keys by Abraham, Moses, Abraham, Elias, and finally Elijah), the Nauvoo Temple was dedicated to ritual usage. In 1879, the Church reduced temple usage to rituals, and thus assembly rooms are missing from later temples. Through his paper, Cowan shows how temples have changed according to revelation and how prophets have seen models in vision that then have been incorporated in the temples God\u2019s people built.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n [Editor\u2019s Note:\u00a0<\/strong>Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article is reprinted here as a service to the Latter-day Saint community. Original pagination and page numbers have necessarily changed, otherwise the reprint has the same content as the original.<\/span><\/p>\n See Richard O. Cowan, \u201cLatter-day Houses of the Lord: Developments in Their Design and Function,\u201d in\u00a0Temple Insights: Proceedings of the Interpreter Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference, \u201cThe Temple on Mount Zion,\u201d 22 September 2012,<\/em>\u00a0ed. William J. Hamblin and David Rolph Seely (Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation; Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2014), 203\u2013218. Further information at\u00a0https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/books\/temple-insights\/<\/a>.]<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBook of Abraham Polemics: Dan Vogel\u2019s Broad Critique of the Defense of the Book of Abraham,\u201d<\/a> by Jeff Lindsay<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Review of Dan Vogel,\u00a0Book of Abraham Apologetics: A\u00a0Review and Critique<\/em>\u00a0(Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2021). 250 pp. $18.95 (softback).<\/span><\/p>\n Abstract:\u00a0<\/strong>Dan Vogel\u2019s latest book claims to offer clear-cut evidence showing what, when, and how Joseph Smith fraudulently translated the Book of Abraham. While he claims to use an objective approach, he instead weaves a\u00a0polemical agenda that ignores some of the most important scholarship in favor of the Book of Abraham. He ignores crucial evidence and relies on assumptions and hypotheses as if they were established facts. The arguments of apologists, which he claims to be reviewing and critiquing, are often overlooked or, when treated, attacked without letting readers know the substance of the apologetic argument. He neglects key arguments, and important documents that don\u2019t fit his theory. The work is a\u00a0valuable tool to explore Book of Abraham polemics, but it is not even-handed scholarship by any means. Vogel\u2019s latest contribution does not overturn the evidence against his paradigm nor overthrow the growing body of insights into the antiquity of the Book of Abraham.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Garrett R. Maxwell, \u201cThe Good God Hermeneutic: A Reconsideration of Religious Vocabulary\u201d<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Review of Fiona Givens and Terryl Givens,\u00a0All Things New: Rethinking Sin, Salvation, and Everything In Between\u00a0<\/em>(Faith Matters Press, 2020). 188 pages. $12.95 (paperback).<\/span><\/p>\n Abstract:\u00a0<\/strong>Fiona and Terryl Givens once again deliver a\u00a0book worthy of the comparatively wide readership they have gained within Latter- day Saint circles. Their orderly treatment of individual gospel concepts in this book can rightly be seen as a\u00a0distillation and unification of their previous work, boldly attempting to awaken us from our ignorance of the sheer novelty and vitality contained in the Restoration vision of God and humanity. They convincingly argue that the historically wrought semantic baggage that comes with the most basic religious vocabulary we use must be consciously jettisoned to fully appreciate and articulate the meaning of the Restoration.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m still thinking about the article regarding religiosity and divorce to which I\u2019ve referred in two recent posts, here<\/a> and here<\/a>.\u00a0 A religion\u2019s impact on behavior in the mundane world is one reasonable way of evaluating and weighing it, of course, though not directly relevant to judging its truth claims as such.\u00a0 Still . . .<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m not in an especially good position or place to gather data right now, but here\u2019s an account of a quite old study (from 1984) on the subject of divorce and Latter-day Saints: \u00a0\u201cLDS Rank High in Marriage, Low in Divorce, Study Says\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a considerably more recent but still older (2002) statement on the topic: \u00a0\u201cStatistics offer good and bad news for LDS: BYU sociologist says LDS often close to U.S. lifestyle norms\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Next, something from the year 2017: \u00a0\u201cFamily Life\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And here\u2019s the most recent account \u2014 dating to 2018, I believe \u2014 that my cursory survey has located today: \u00a0\u201cThis Is Why Mormons<\/a> Marry Young, And Statistics Of How It Often Ends\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And now, to conclude this hasty round of \u201cresearch\u201d (that is to say, of lazy, casual Googling), this one from way back in 1964 might still be worthy of a serious read: \u00a0\u201cMormon and Non-Mormon Divorce Patterns,\u201d by Phillip R. Kunz of the University of Michigan<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I close by encouraging you to read an article by David French, one of my favorite Evangelical Protestant writers, that was kindly brought to my attention by Doug Ealy:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n