Korihor and the Defense of Secularism

August 27, 2013 By TT

Generally, Korihor is understood as a kind of anachronistic representation of secularism by many modern interpreters. However, it is not at all clear that Korihor represents secularism. Indeed, his confession notes that a religious experience is what motivated him. Secularism may be defined in various ways, and indeed has enjoyed a rigorous critical discussion over the past decade or so. For the purposes of this post, I want to examine just two important ways for thinking about the secular: secularism... Read more

Doubt and the Dangers of Reading Alone

August 13, 2013 By smallaxe

A lot has already been said about the Hans Mattsson article in the NYT. One issue, however, that I feel needs further exploration is how crises of faith might be approached from a more therapeutic or pastoral angle. Below are some excerpts from a sacrament talk I delivered at the beginning of this year. I hope it might contribute to the recent discussions of doubt and faith crises in Mormonism. This invitation to speak coincided with a presentation I attended... Read more

Exploring the Iconic Nature of the Book of Mormon: Part IIb – The Fluid Nature of the Text of the Book of Mormon

August 8, 2013 By MormonDeadhead

I here continue my series of posts dealing with the iconic nature of the Book of Mormon (BoM). For my introduction to this series, see here. For the first half of the current section on textual criticism and the BoM, see here. In my last post I gave a brief description of the various manuscripts and editions of the BoM. I would now like to examine what I have found to be several very interesting textual variants in the BoM... Read more

Hans Mattsson and Joseph Smith’s polygamy

July 31, 2013 By RT

The online LDS response to the NYT article describing Hans Mattsson’s struggle with doubt about the Mormon faith that he had once believed in has been interesting to watch. Most responses have been generous and sympathetic, realizing that some serious soul-searching within the community is in order, while others have been more reactionary. One aspect of this discussion I have found particularly interesting has been the conversations that have ensued over Mattsson’s confusion and concern over Joseph Smith’s polygamy. Some... Read more

The Heresies of Father Brown and the Future of LDS Scriptural Studies

July 12, 2013 By gwesley

With the new direction at the Maxwell Institute, the launch of the Mormon Interpreter, the latest about the BYU New Testament Commentary project, and the search for a new dean of Religious Education, which culminated last week, there has been some talk about the future of LDS scriptural studies, including, but hardly focused on, the Bible. In talking about the future, we might consider the history of scriptural studies in other faith traditions, such as Catholicism. Broadly speaking, Catholics were... Read more

From the Archives: King Benjamin Killed God

July 9, 2013 By TT

This is a repost from four years ago. I was reminded of it and thought it worth rereading. Original with comments here. Jesus set up an impossible paradox when he explained that the two great commandments are to love God and to love one’s neighbor (though he was not the first to summarize the Law in such a way). The problem is that one simply cannot do both, as Jesus himself elsewhere noted that one cannot serve two masters. King... Read more

Hellenism and the Sermon on the Mount

June 19, 2013 By TT

The Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5-7) has sometimes been put forward as one of those features of Christianity that marks it as distinctive from Hellenism. Traditional Protestant scholarship on the Bible reproduced popular racialized conceptions of culture in their analysis of ancient categories of thought. For instance, Adolf von Harnack distinguished between Judaism and Hellenism in his analysis of early Christianity. To this may be added the idea that Christianity represented something unique and distinct from its surroundings. In... Read more

The Land Northward and the Land of Moron in the Book of Ether

June 19, 2013 By RT

Book of Mormon geography is an area of research that has taken interesting turns in recent decades. Scholarly apologists have come to recognize that traditional interpretations of the Book of Mormon that understand it to have encompassed the lands of both North and South America are historically untenable and so have constructed alternative limited geographical models that see the events recounted in it as having occurred in a relatively small area of Mesoamerica (or, as some would have it, in... Read more

The Politics of Editing “The False Gods We Worship”

June 17, 2013 By TT

President Spencer W. Kimball’s most famous sermon recently received a makeover in the June Ensign. Kimball delivered one of the most enduring sermons of his career, “The False Gods We Worship,” in 1976 in the context of the bicentennial celebration of the United States. Kimball was a conservative political thinker, but this talk has endured in part because it appealed to conservatives and liberals alike. There are two sins that are at the heart of Kimball’s critique of society. First,... Read more

Evangelium secundum Matthaeum et tres porci minores

June 11, 2013 By gwesley

Matt 7:6 …neither cast ye your pearls before swine… (The three little pigs? No, just coincidence.) Matt 7:7-8 …knock and it shall be opened unto you… (Hmm.) Matt 7: 15 … but inwardly they are ravening wolves… (Well.) Matt 7:19 … and cast into the fire … (Uh. Fire. Pot of boiling water.) Matt 7:21 Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter … (Little pig, little pig, let me in!?) Matt 7:23 … depart from me …... Read more