In Plato’s dialogue Crito, Socrates tells his friend Crito that he cannot flee his death sentence and impose upon himself exile. He is an Athenian and everything he has become, all the things that make him Socrates, are the result of Athenian culture and Athenian institutions. I sometimes feel similarly towards the University of Utah. My time at the University of Utah was a struggle. Long commutes. Financial struggles. I was not a favorite of the faculty. By having kids... Read more

*As will soon become apparent, I have been influenced by several posts of late. You might consider this a longish comment. In a routine meeting, I recently heard a department chair of religious studies describe the relationship he has with his own religious tradition as tortured. He went on to say that the tension between faith and scholarship is essential to what religious studies people do. Instead of seeking a once-and-for-all resolution or peace of mind, as some might like... Read more

There’s no bread, let them eat cake There’s no end to what they’ll take Flaunt the fruits of noble birth Wash the salt into the earth But they’re marching to Bastille Day La guillotine will claim her bloody prize Free the dungeons of the innocent The king will kneel and let his kingdom rise Bloodstained velvet, dirty lace Naked fear on every face See them bow their heads to die As we would bow as they rode by And we’re... Read more

In a recent post about the loneliness that LDS humanities scholars can face in their wards, the topic quickly turns to the “intellectual” in the church (and proves my theory that posts about anti-intellectualism in the church are the best place to find anti-intellectual comments!). The problem with these kinds of discussions, it seems to me, is that the definition of an “intellectual” is highly unclear. Like other terms such as “conservative,” “liberal,” or “feminist,” the label “intellectual” may be... Read more

Okay, not really. While many of us cringe at the heavy doses of American exceptionalism (often in the most cheesy forms) within Mormon Culture, maybe there is something valuable in viewing American and Christianity as being intertwined. However, not intertwined in a positive sense, like a manifest destiny, but a destructive one. Not sure if I can fully articulate this at the moment, but I think that David Bowie (with some help from Trent Reznor) give an interesting, and very... Read more

I almost made it 6 weeks without posting. Not commenting only lasted about two weeks. This worked as well as my attempt to quit Diet Coke. Oh well. I have discussed my feelings about the bloggernacle in a number of places recently, both in private and in public forums. By putting up some posts about my projects, I hope I can focus my energies in a more productive way. It is also best that I focus my blogging on the... Read more

Author’s note 2010: I had hoped to write a new post for this year, but given time constraints, I will again share this post. It was originally posted July 3, 2009. Author’s note: The following is not particularly Mormon Studies (though Martha Nussbaum does hold an appointment in the Divinity School, as well as the Law School and Philosophy Department, at the University of Chicago). It is rooted in my Kantian/Rawlsian approach to Mormonism (which is my Christianity). I decided... Read more

I have a theory that I’d like to test about the sociology of knowledge and activity in the church. The well-worn cliche in an exit story about one day discovering something about church history that had been “hidden,” and thereby being thrown into a tailspin has some valence. I think there was a paper delivered at some point that these narratives are structurally the same as LDS “conversion” narratives. Just as many LDS conversions perhaps occur too quickly, this “rebellion”... Read more

So a few weeks ago I was reviewing some recent, secondary literature on the famous scene of Peter’s rebuke in Mk 8:33 (“Get behind me, Satan!”). My own interests were in the language of interscholastic (as in Hellenistic philosophical schools) rebuke and frank criticism. However, during this survey, I quite unexpectedly came upon a passage which caught my interest as a Mormon. The source is Hans F. Bayer’s Das Evangelium des Markus (Witten: Brockhaus, 2008), a volume in the Historisch-Theologische... Read more