The care perspective was first identified by Carol Gilligan who argued that there are two moral voices: justice and care. Justice, the masculine approach to morality, focuses on universal abstract principles such as equality, impartiality, and universality. Within a Mormon context, I think the principle of agency, as well as obedience would be added to this list. The classic justice perspective is Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative. The categorical imperative asserts that we should act according to principles that we would... Read more

I was reminded of this by the recent BCC post about smart phones at Church. Thanks, Scott. In the postmodern era, we do not need to be under the surveillance of our overlords, masters, or prison guards. Foucault points out that behavior was once controlled by torture and physical harm, or at least the threat thereof. This is best represented by public torture and public hangings (though we should not forget burning witches at the stake). In the early 1800s,... Read more

I’ve been on a bit of a John Durham Peters kick lately. It probably has something to do with the podcast interview I recently put together with him (yes, this post contains a bit of self-promotion, but it’s for your own good!). In case the name doesn’t ring a bell, he’s a communication studies professor at the University of Iowa and the author of my favorite book, Speaking Into the Air: A History of the Idea of Communication. I was... Read more

The release of the “Book of Commandments and Revelations” (BCR) in the latest installment of the Joseph Smith Papers has provided tremendous insights into the textual history of Joseph Smith’s revelations, most of which were eventually canonized in our current edition of the D&C. I have spent countless hours (most of which I don’t have) examining the subtle (and not so subtle) changes that occur in the textual history of many of the revelations. [1] Marquardt’s volume on the subject... Read more

Shamelessly jumping on the bandwagon … The most reliable way to measure the accuracy of any biblical translation is not by comparing different texts, but by comparison with the Book of Mormon and modern-day revelations. Would anyone care to guess what this means (whether new or not)? A. different texts = other modern translations of the Bible B. different texts = critical editions of the Bible in ancient languages C. different texts = non-specific, all inclusive of anything besides KJV... Read more

My family has applied to be in the Hill Cumorah Pageant cast this coming summer. The pageant depicts the story of the Book of Mormon and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon through Joseph Smith. I saw the production once when we lived in Auburn, NY. My wife saw it a couple of time when we lived there. She was also a cast member as a teenager. Now that we have a permanent teaching position, we can do... Read more

I served on my mission with one of the grandsons of emeritus Seventy Elder F. Enzio Busche, whose autohagiography has been on Mormon bookshelves for a few years. My wife and I recently completed reading it a chapter a week for FHE. Among the often incredible and always uplifting stories he tells is one about Sister Neuberg, an elderly German sister with unique spiritual gifts. The two became acquainted while Edler Busche was working in Salt Lake around 1983. He... Read more

The Book of Mormon contains an allegory or two, maybe more than the New Testament, and it presupposes a typological interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. But if my perception is accurate, as a whole we are not very willing to interpret the Book of Mormon other than literally. Which is curious, not because the boundaries between literal and non-literal interpretation are questionable, being tied up with appeals to (objective) history and authorial intent, but because the Book of Mormon itself... Read more

I’m familiar with the drawbacks of polls generally. But for some reason my familiarity doesn’t do much quell my disappointment when I see what I consider to be embarrassing poll results like these: Muslims, Jews, other non-Christians and non-religious Americans are more likely to favor retaining the current location as originally conceived, or transforming the center into an interfaith institution. The majority of Catholics, Mormons, and, to a lesser degree, Protestants, believe the center should find another location. (more…) Read more