Sorry I’ve been absent for a while. Well, here’s part of my excuse – a new venture at Meridian Magazine “to engage scholars and thinkers on critical intellectual issues.” Check out my introductory “manifesto.” Tomorrow we begin with my introduction to Terryl Givens’ Wrestling with Angel, followed by Part One of my interview with Givens. Much discussion from Meridian/EXPAND will be previewed here at The Soul and the City, or will “spill over” here. Read more
Another in a series of notes and highlights on Terryl Givens’ very important Wrestling the Angel. (Eventually I’ll find some points to explore, engage. I leave in the Kindle place markers, in case they might be useful to other readers.) Given provides a very nuanced treatment of the meaning of “Restoration” and “Apostasy,” and the relation of authoritative revelation to history and to intellectual inquiry. At the same time, he clearly remains open to the distinctive truth and beauty of... Read more
I could be annoyed by Terryl Givens. His new Wrestling the Angel: The Foundations of Mormon Thought: Cosmos, God, Humanity has been keeping me up at night, throwing off my biological clock, further complicating my thinking and interfering with my already compromised “productivity.” But I am not annoyed, I am profoundly grateful, as all advised readers will be. This book is a monumental contribution that it will take us some time to digest. And it promises to meet a very... Read more
[A continuation of my earlier reflections on BYU, in response to Professor Richard Bushman] But to return to the specific situation at BYU: I spoke of challenges and warned of tendencies, he sees “battle lines.” I discern differing (and, it is true, ultimately incompatible) visions among faithful and well-intentioned colleagues (at an institution where, as I write, “the broad and deep religious commitment of students and faculty is by far the greatest asset the university possesses”), he somehow hears a... Read more
I was happy to discover, a few months ago, that Richard Bushman, the most distinguished and accomplished scholar of Mormon history, had taken notice of my article in First Things (March), “Keeping Faith in Provo.” Then I was disappointed that he had not chosen to read my article carefully enough really to engage it. I argued there that BYU’s aspiration to integrate faith and intellect is essential to the character of the university, even if we never fully attain... Read more
Check out my latest at National Review Online (Postmodern Conservative blog), where I compare “Ray Donovan” with “Girls” and just begin to suggest a critique of Charles Taylor’s settlement with A Secular Age. “The pre-modern tradition was right: moral seriousness and intellectual insight are finally inseparable. Amoral aesthetic spirituality is very hard to distinguish from conformist relativism and shallowness. A God who cannot in the slightest govern our sexual desires cannot really open up a dimension of transcendence.” Read more
I’m just working through a timely, insightful and judicious new book: Seeking the Promised Land: Mormons and American Politics. The authors include my esteemed colleague in Political Science at BYU, J. Quin Monson (I didn’t even know about the “J”! Almost sounds like a general authority that way…), along with David E. Campbell and John C. Green. In the first chapter, “Meet the Mormons,” the authors argue that Mormons don’t fit in with religious traditionalists but hold highly traditional values. Indeed,... Read more
[T]he word hath swelled your soul… and your mind doth begin to expand. (Alma 32:34) To Launch this November: A new forum that will be a complement to the popular LDS magazine site, MERIDIAN. Here’s a brief mission statement. (See the longer explanation in my earlier post on Moral Apologetics.) To EXPAND the role of critical thinking faithful to the Church and the Gospel: Careful, critical thinking has a role to play in explaining and defending the Church’s moral positions,... Read more
For readers who may have an interest in some finer points of political philosophy (within a school of “Postmodern Conservatism”), check out an ongoing discussion between my friend Peter Lawler and me at National Review Online. Here is the latest installment — track back from this one. Read more
It has been a few weeks now since BYU inaugurated its new president, in an event presided over by President Monson, conducted by Elder Nelson, with President Eyring performing the actual inauguration. Unless my memory is failing me (always possible) this inauguration considerably surpassed earlier BYU inaugurations, at least of recent memory, in pomp and ceremony. Now, I’m in favor of pomp and ceremony, and it is certainly appropriate to solemnize such an inauguration with the requisite dose of grave... Read more
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