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Three new items appeared today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em>.\u00a0 As with all such articles, they are made freely available to anybody who might be interested:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c\u201cFor Their Good Have I Written Them\u201d: The Onomastic Allusivity and Literary Function of 2 Nephi 25:8,\u201d<\/a> written by Matthew L. Bowen<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Abstract:<\/strong>\u00a0Nephi\u2019s writings exhibit a\u00a0distinctive focus on \u201cgood\u201d and divine \u201cgoodness,\u201d reflecting the meaning of Nephi\u2019s Egyptian name (derived from\u00a0<\/em>nfr) meaning \u201cgood,\u201d \u201cgoodly,\u201d \u201cfine,\u201d or \u201cfair.\u201d Beyond the\u00a0<\/em>inclusio\u00a0playing on his own name in terms of \u201cgood\u201d and \u201cgoodness\u201d (1\u00a0Nephi\u00a01:1; 2\u00a0Nephi\u00a033:3\u20134, 10, 12), he uses a\u00a0similar\u00a0<\/em>inclusio\u00a0(2\u00a0Nephi\u00a05:30\u201331; 25:7\u20138) to frame and demarcate a\u00a0smaller portion of his personal record in which he incorporated a\u00a0substantial portion of the prophecies of Isaiah (2\u00a0Nephi\u00a06\u201324). This smaller\u00a0<\/em>inclusio\u00a0frames the Isaianic material as having been incorporated into Nephi\u2019s \u201cgood\u201d writings on the small plates with an express purpose: the present and future \u201cgood\u201d of his and his brothers\u2019 descendants down to the latter days.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe Continuing Saga of Saints<\/em>,\u201d<\/span><\/a> written by Craig L. Foster<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Review of\u00a0Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days: Volume 3: Boldly, Nobly, and Independent: 1893\u20131955<\/em>\u00a0(Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a>, 2022). 757 pages. $6.90 (paperback).<\/span><\/p>\n Abstract:<\/strong>\u00a0Volume 3 of\u00a0<\/em>Saints\u00a0is a\u00a0readable and engaging narrative discussing a\u00a0dynamic and transitional period of the history of The Church of Jesus\u00a0Christ of Latter-day Saints. As with the previous volumes in the series, it is approachable and enjoyable for almost all reading audiences.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cInterpreting\u00a0Interpreter<\/em>: For Their Good,\u201d<\/a> by Kyler Rasmussen<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n This post is a summary of the article \u201c\u201cFor Their Good Have I Written Them\u201d: The Onomastic Allusivity and Literary Function of 2 Nephi 25:8<\/a>\u201d by Matthew L. Bowen in Volume 53 of\u00a0Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em>. An introduction to the \u201cInterpreting Interpreter<\/em>\u201d series is available at https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/interpreting-interpreter-on-abstracting-thought\/<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n The Takeaway:<\/strong>\u00a0 Bowen proposes that Nephi used the term \u201cgood\u201d to demarcate his quotations of Isaiah in 2 Nephi 6-24, similar to how he seems to have done for 1 and 2 Nephi more generally, suggesting that Nephi included those chapters for the \u201cgood\u201d of Lehi\u2019s descendants.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n You might be interested in this commentary from a veteran American religion journalist who happens to be Greek Orthodox:<\/p>\n \u201cPodcast: Are Brigham Young sports controversies about sports, religion or politics?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t know Eugene England particularly well \u2014 he was in a different BYU department than I was, for one thing, and about two decades my senior \u2014 and we disagreed on a number of political issues and even a few ecclesiological matters.\u00a0 In fact, we once even had a brief and minor clash that I scarcely remember now.\u00a0 I think it can safely be said that, on at least some issues of both church and state, he leaned left where I lean right.\u00a0 But I invariably found him interesting, and his devotion to the Restored Gospel was deep and unwavering.\u00a0 (For some odd reason, in thinking of Gene I\u2019m reminded of Tommy Lasorda\u2019s famous declaration that he bled \u201cDodger blue.\u201d\u00a0 Much more aptly, I\u2019m also reminded of the comment that, despite their many disagreements, Brigham Young once made about Elder Orson Pratt:\u00a0 \u201cIf Brother Orson were chopped up in inch pieces, each piece would cry out Mormonism was true.\u201d)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Now that we\u2019re beginning to pivot just a little bit toward our new project, Six Days in August<\/em><\/a>, which will focus on the succession of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to the leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after the assassination of Joseph and Hyrum Smith in Carthage Jail, I\u2019ve been re-reading a favorite book by Eugene England, his Brother Brigham<\/em> (Salt Lake City, Bookcraft, 1980)<\/a>.\u00a0 I snapped Brother Brigham<\/em> up and read it immediately after its initial publication (as I did with all of his books) and have read it again at least once since then.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n But I\u2019m re-reading it now with a different purpose and from a different vantage point, and I must say that I\u2019m liking it very, very much and that I recommend it very, very strongly to anybody who would like to learn more about the second president of the Church.\u00a0 Gene England wasn\u2019t a trained historian.\u00a0 Rather, he was a perceptive scholar of literature and an accomplished essayist.\u00a0 Thus, his insights into Brigham Young\u2019s character are extremely worthwhile.\u00a0 If you can find a copy of Brother Brigham<\/em>, give it a look.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Here are a couple of passages from Eugene England\u2019s \u201cPreface\u201d to Brother Brigham<\/em> that I really liked, and that give a sense of his approach to his subject:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Too many books about Brigham Young have been written without love or faith.\u00a0 And they have suffered from the lack of insight into human character that only sympathy, even empathy, can bring.\u00a0 They have thus not provided much penetration into the most profound springs of feeling and motivation for a man such as Brother Brigham: the hand of God on his life and his own transforming conviction that the true gospel of Christ had been restored \u2014 that, however inadequate he might be, he was called to serve Jesus Christ as one of his latter-day apostles.\u00a0 (vii)<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n One great excitement in my own rediscovery of Brigham Young, and one that has made him able to move me emotionally and to change my life for good, has been to see him as a warm, fallible, humorous, loving father, husband, friend \u2014 that is, as a man, as well as a prophet of God.\u00a0 I am convinced that those who knew him in this way were compelled to respect Brother Brigham \u2014 and often to love him.\u00a0 And they were moved, the better they knew him, to faith in God and themselves and to courage and energy to be better and build better than they had before.\u00a0 These essays attempt to bring us, through the special means of language, to reach back more than a hundred years and to know that man \u2014 one made of the same common clay as each of us, and yet a man transformed into a vessel of honor by a divine fire that is available to us all.\u00a0 (viii-ix)<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Posted from Newport Beach, California<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 \u00a0 Three new items appeared today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship.\u00a0 As with all such articles, they are made freely available to anybody who might be interested: \u00a0 \u201c\u201cFor Their Good Have I Written Them\u201d: The Onomastic Allusivity and Literary Function of 2 Nephi 25:8,\u201d written by Matthew L. 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