A recent book review of Eric Shuster and Charles Sale’s The Biblical Roots of Mormonism describes the book as “a 258-page overview of about 350 Latter-day Saint beliefs referenced in the Old and New Testament.” On the face of it, the book sounds like an extended exercise in proof-texting. I’ve talked about a few potential problems with such easy “likening” elsewhere but I haven’t read this particular book myself, so I can’t comment on its quality. Instead, I want to focus... Read more
The Mormon Scholars Foundation is currently accepting applications for the 2011 Summer Seminar on “the gold plates as a cultural artifact.” Graduate students at any level of preparation from the fields of history, literature, anthropology, sociology, religious studies, philosophy and other humanistic and social scientific fields, as well as junior faculty, are invited to apply. Click here for more information, click here to download an application. Here’s my take as a former seminar participant: Last summer I had the privilege of... Read more
Mormon Scholars Testify is a website which seeks to give “LDS scholars the opportunity to express their views and feelings about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” Daniel C. Peterson, who originally conceived of the site and collects testimonies for inclusion, described it as a “personal missionary enterprise” inspired by Elder Ballard’s call for more members to use the Internet to spread the gospel.1 In this post I want to chat about the purposes of... Read more
“How can the freedom of citizens be secured in a socialist state?” asked political theorist William Connolly. In Free to Choose, Milton Friedman makes an automatic connection between the economic freedom and political freedom, implying that socialism by its very existence denies freedom to its citizens. Economic freedom, as defined by Friedman, is laissez—faire capitalism or market activity with very minimal government assistance or regulation. Political freedom, as defined by Friedman, includes the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion,... Read more
It is often said that social justice is about forcing others to be charitable. I should let you in on a secret: I do not give a crap about whether you are charitable or not. If I was trying to force you to be charitable, I would be doing it to force you to be righteous, but social justice is not about whether you are just but whether our society is just (sorry, not everything is about you). Now saying... Read more
aquinas began his interfaith dialogue blog Summa Theologica in 2007 and then launched The Pierian Spring earlier this year, which he dedicates to Mormon intramural theological issues. His posts shows he is particularly interested in the historical development of Mormon thought. We are very pleased to welcome him here! Read more
Recently I received a phone call from Sam’s Club in which I was informed that through a store promotional I had won six months worth of free gas for my car. I was thrilled at the news and listened eagerly as the representative explained the details of my winnings. Ten minutes into the call, as part of the information needed to complete the transaction, I was asked for my credit card number. “Dang!” I exclaimed. “And I TOTALLY thought you... Read more
Introduction [1] The Bible often privileges men as normative for what it means to be human, frequently considers women as inferior to men, and presents God in overwhelmingly male terms. For the contemporary believer who is committed to the full equality of men and women the problem is not simply one of reconciling isolated patriarchal, sexist, or misogynistic biblical passages with an egalitarian or feminist perspective, but the revelatory nature of the biblical text itself. “How can a text that... Read more
K.Ullrich-Hodges is joining me for our post on Santa Claus. Chris H. talked about some of the reasons he embraces the Santa Claus tradition, so this post talks about why K and I anticipate trying something different for Christmas with our yet-to-be-born child(ren). There are a few reasons we may be parting with the typical Santa Claus tradition, but there are a few reservations to consider (particularly on the part of B more than K). K- For starters, there’s the... Read more
Dear BYU Religious Education, I can only speak for myself here–one LDS graduate student studying religion; but I know this sentiment is shared, and that those who share it are apprehensive about expressing it. Over the next few years, however, you, Religious Education, will hire several new professors. I believe there is one search ongoing now in Provo (using the same ad), and another in Hawaii; so this is something you should probably know sooner rather than later. You think much... Read more
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