Publications - Speaking Silence

Reconsidering Psychology
Perspectives from Continental Philosophy

Scripture Study
Tools and Suggestions

Summary: Cultivate your love for the scriptures and deepen your knowledge with the help of a scripture study process compiled by James E. Faulconer. Rich scripture study is facilitated by tools and techniques that help us focus on what the scriptures can teach us. This study aid offers pointers and suggestions that will familiarize beginning students of the scriptures with the many resources available to them, as well as help more experienced students improve the overall effectiveness of their scripture study.

Appropriating Heidegger

Summary: Although Martin Heidegger is undeniably one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century, among the philosophers who study his work we find considerable disagreement over what might seem to be basic issues: why is Heidegger important? What did his work do? This volume is an explicit response to these differences, and is unique in bringing together representatives of many different approaches to Heidegger’s philosophy.

Transcendence in Religion and Philosophy

Summary:Can transcendence be both philosophical and religious? Do philosophers and theologians conceive of the same thing when they think and talk about transcendence? Philosophy and religion have understood transcendence and other matters of faith differently, but both the language and concepts of religion, including transcendence, reside at the core of postmodern philosophy. Transcendence in Philosophy and Religion considers whether it is possible to analyze religious transcendence in a philosophical manner, and if so, whether there is a way for phenomenology to think transcendence directly.

Faith, Philosophy, Scripture

Summary: Faith, Philosophy, Scripture is a collection of 10 essays resulting from Professor James E. Faulconer’s work as a philosopher and his abiding faith as a Latter-day Saint. Faith is the starting point, and philosophy is its supplement rather than competitor.The intent behind the book is to help the reader see how faith, philosophy, and scripture can be part of a whole life, each helping make sense of the others, with faith as the ground and center of them all.

The Life of Holiness: Romans 1

Summary: The Life of Holiness is the product of years of reflection and careful study of the Epistle to the Romans. James E. Faulconer has crafted for his readers a work that provokes their thoughts, offering questions for consideration and reflection more than answers, matters to consider rather than doctrine to hear.

The Old Testament Made Harder

Summary: While many books about the Old Testament provide useful shortcuts, chapter synopses, timelines, and memorizable bullet points, this book consists almost entirely of challenging questions (with occasional commentary for clarity’s sake) because, in Faulconer’s experience, questions themselves are the key to reflective and deep scripture study. This book is intended to make reading harder—and therefore fresher—by priming your pondering pump with insightful study questions. The Old Testament Made Harder is the perfect tool to improve personal and family scripture study, sacrament meeting talks, or Sunday School lessons.

The New Testament Made Harder

Summary: James E. Faulconer’s Made Harder series raises many more questions than it answers. And that is precisely the point. Faulconer wrote The New Testament Made Harder on the premise that our scripture study is only as good as the questions we bring to the endeavor. While many books about the New Testament provide useful shortcuts, chapter synopses, timelines, and memorizable bullet points, this book consists almost entirely of challenging questions (with occasional commentary for clarity’s sake) because, in James Faulconer’s experience, questions themselves are the key to reflective and deep scripture study.

The Book of Mormon Made Harder

Summary: James E. Faulconer’s Made Harder series raises many more questions than it answers. And that is precisely the point. Faulconer wrote The Book of Mormon Made Harder on the premise that our scripture study is only as good as the questions we bring to the endeavor. While many books about the Book of Mormon provide useful shortcuts, chapter synopses, timelines, and memorizable bullet points, this book consists almost entirely of challenging questions (with occasional commentary for clarity’s sake) because, in Faulconer’s experience, questions themselves are the key to reflective and deep scripture study. This book is intended to make readingharder—and therefore fresher—by priming your pondering pump with insightful study questions.

The Doctrine and Covenants Made Harder

Summary: Faulconer wrote The Doctrine & Covenants Made Harder on the premise that our scripture study is only as good as the questions we bring to the endeavor. The book consists almost entirely of challenging questions (with occasional commentary for clarity’s sake) because, in Faulconer’s experience, questions themselves are the key to reflective and deep scripture study. This book is intended to make reading harder—and therefore fresher—by priming your pondering pump with insightful study questions. So much of modern life is geared to finding faster and easier ways to do the same old things. The Made Harder series is proof that making things easier does not always make them better.

Perspectives on Mormon Theology

Summary: The essays making up this collection reflect attentiveness to both ways of understanding the phrase “theology of scripture.” Each essay takes up the relatively un-self-conscious work of reading a scriptural text but then—at some point or another—asks the self-conscious question of exactly what she or he is doing in the work of reading scripture. We have thus attempted in this book (1) to create a dialogue concerning what scripture is for Latter-day Saints, and (2) to focus that dialogue on concrete examples of Latter-day Saints reading actual scripture texts.

Common Ground–Different Opinions
Latter-day Saint and Contemporary Issues

Summary: A new volume of essays, Common Ground–Different Opinions: Latter-day Saint and Contemporary Issues. Contributors include former U.S. Senator Robert Bennett, Robert L. Millet, James Faulconer, Taylor Petrey, Margaret Young, and Kristine Haglund. There are a number of controversial topics that faithful Latter-day Saints can engage from a variety of perspectives, drawing a wide range of moral, ethical, and policy conclusions. These difficult issues can affect how we interact as Latter-day Saints, even on the common ground of our shared religious commitments. In this volume various Latter-day Saint authors address these and other issues from variable points of view. Though they differ on these tough questions, they have all found common ground in the gospel of Jesus Christ and the latter-day restoration. Their insights offer diverse approaches to tough questions while demonstrating the value in loving, respecting, and listening to those with whom we disagree.