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***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n My daily schedule here in Israel is not exactly well-aligned with the publishing schedule of the Utah-based Interpreter Foundation.\u00a0 But I do what I can, when I can.\u00a0 Right now, for example, I\u2019m calling your attention to an article by Kyler Rasmussen<\/a> that went up on Friday:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cInterpreting\u00a0Interpreter<\/em>: Commissions and Conversions\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n This post is a summary of the article \u201cAlma\u2019s Prophetic Commissioning Type Scene<\/a>\u201d by Alan Goff in Volume 51 of\u00a0Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n An introduction to the Interpreting\u00a0Interpreter<\/em>\u00a0series is available at\u00a0https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/interpreting-interpreter-on-abstracting-thought\/<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n The Takeaway:<\/strong>\u00a0Goff responds to charges of plagiarism in the case of Alma the Younger\u2019s conversion experience, arguing that similarities to Paul\u2019s conversion story reflects alignment with ancient literary archetypes rather than theft. He also suggests that modern scholars are committing a commonly-acknowledged logical error when asserting that Alma\u2019s story\u2014or any other story that molds its narrative to fit literary convention\u2014must have been plagiarized or fabricated.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Several years ago the Tabernacle Choir sang the \u201cGloria\u201d from Schubert\u2019s Mass in G<\/em> during its weekly Sunday morning television broadcast.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I love Schubert\u2019s Mass in G<\/em>, partly because I know it very well. \u00a0While my wife and I were living in Cairo, Egypt, back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, we sang with the choir at the Ma\u2018adi Community Church, near our apartment. \u00a0(The pastor, the late Rev. David Johnson<\/a>, was our downstairs neighbor during our first year there. \u00a0We often babysat his kids.)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n One year, we did Schubert\u2019s Mass in G<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n So the Tabernacle Choir had me singing along. \u00a0And then getting out recordings and listening to more of it. \u00a0I love the whole thing. \u00a0And I really love the \u201cCredo\u201d:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Credo in unum Deum, Patrem omnipotentem,<\/strong><\/span> \u00a0<\/p>\n The Latin text is based, more or less, on the AD 325 Nicene creed, as filtered through its AD 381 revision in Constantinople:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty,<\/strong><\/span> \u00a0<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a fairly good recording of it:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UrhMrUYmwsM<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Note the terrible gloom of the music when it treats the crucifixion and death of the Savior, followed by the exultation of his triumph over death \u2014 and the grim warning of his future coming in justice and judgment.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I couldn\u2019t help but think while we were rehearsing and performing the Mass in G<\/em>, and I can\u2019t help but think whenever I hear it, how much more the piece means to me because I believe every word of the lyrics. \u00a0The music is beautiful, but singing the Mass in G<\/em>, and listening to it, isn\u2019t merely an aesthetic experience for me. \u00a0It\u2019s a transporting spiritual experience, too.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n While I think that I was an agnostic in my immediate pre-teens, and possibly even an atheist, I\u2019ve never had the experience of being an atheist as an adult<\/em>. \u00a0So I can\u2019t speak with any real authority here, but it\u2019s inconceivable to me that performing and hearing Schubert\u2019s Mass in G<\/em> \u2014 and Vivaldi\u2019s Gloria<\/em>, and Bach\u2019s St. Matthew Passion<\/em>, and Michael Praetorius\u2019s Es ist ein Ros\u2019 entsprungen<\/em>, and so on and so forth \u2014 would not be a relatively arid and impoverished experience if I didn\u2019t believe what I was singing about.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And, incidentally, doesn\u2019t the fact that I believe every word of the \u201cCredo\u201d of Schubert\u2019s Mass in G<\/em> suggest that \u2014 notwithstanding the claims of evangelical Protestant anti-Mormons out there \u2014 I\u2019m a Christian?\u00a0 Even if, admittedly, not a very good<\/em> one?\u00a0 I have to say that, based on the places that we\u2019re visiting here and the things that I\u2019ve been saying at those places, I certainly feel<\/em> like a Christian.\u00a0 We had a devotional this evening in which the other two \u201cheadliners\u201d \u2014 Justin Topp<\/a> and Casey Griffiths<\/a> \u2014 and I addressed all of our groups together.\u00a0 Each of us spoke about Christ.\u00a0 My particular focus was a commentary on John 1:1-14.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Posted from Tiberias, Israel<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 \u00a0 *** \u00a0 My daily schedule here in Israel is not exactly well-aligned with the publishing schedule of the Utah-based Interpreter Foundation.\u00a0 But I do what I can, when I can.\u00a0 Right now, for example, I\u2019m calling your attention to an article by Kyler Rasmussen that went up on Friday: \u00a0 \u201cInterpreting\u00a0Interpreter: Commissions and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
\n factorem coeli et terrae,<\/strong><\/span>
\n visibilium omnium et invisibilium.<\/strong><\/span>
\n [Et] in unum Dominum Jesum Christum,<\/strong><\/span>
\n Filium Dei unigenitum, [et] ex patre natum ante omnia saecula, Deum de Deo, lumen de lumine,<\/strong><\/span>
\n Deum verum de Deo vero. Genitum non factum, consubstantialem Patri; per quem omnia facta sunt. Qui propter nos homines et [propter] nostram salutem descendit de coelis.<\/strong><\/span>
\n Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto,<\/strong><\/span>
\n ex Maria virgine; et homo factus est.<\/strong><\/span>
\n Crucifixus etiam pro nobis sub Pontio Pilato,<\/strong><\/span>
\n passus et sepultus est. Et resurrexit tertia die secundum Scripturas, et ascendit in coelum, sedet ad dexteram Patris, et iterum venturus est cum gloria, judicare vivos et mortuos, cujus regni non erit finis.<\/strong><\/span>
\n Et in Spiritum Sanctum Dominum,<\/strong><\/span>
\n et vivificantem, qui ex Patre Filioque procedit,<\/strong><\/span>
\n qui cum Patre et Filio simul adoratur,<\/strong><\/span>
\n et conglorificatur, qui locutus est per Prophetas.<\/strong><\/span>
\n [Et unam sanctam catholicam et apostolicam Ecclesiam.] Confiteor unum baptisma in remissionem peccatorum, [et expecto resurectionem mortuorum,]<\/strong><\/span>
\n et vitam venturi saeculi. Amen.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
\n maker of heaven and earth,<\/strong><\/span>
\n of all that is, seen and unseen.<\/strong><\/span>
\n [And] in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father,<\/strong><\/span>
\n God from God, light from light,<\/strong><\/span>
\n true God from true God, begotten, not made,<\/strong><\/span>
\n of one being with the Father; through Him all things were made. For us and [for] our salvation He came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit He became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.<\/strong><\/span>
\n For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered death and was buried. On the third day He rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father; He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end.<\/strong><\/span>
\n And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son; with the Father and the Son He is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the prophets. [I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church;] I acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins; [I look for the resurrection of the dead,] and the life of the world to come. Amen.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n