The Flood: Global or Localized?
I would argue neither. With the rising tide of modern science, historical criticism, and other scholarly disciplines, those committed to a strict literalist interpretation of the Flood stories in Gen...
View ArticleOn Biblical Scripture
The Problem What makes Biblical Scripture, Scripture for LDS Christians?* Historically one prominent model for the authority of Biblical Scripture in Christian history (including for some Latter-day...
View ArticleMormons and Wild Geese
The first line of Mary Oliver’s poem “Wild Geese” seems as at odds with Mormonism as anything can be. “You do not have to be good,” she states. What’s that? It sounds an awfully lot like sacrilege. Of...
View ArticleEvil Eschatological Mothers
Heh. Back to work, are you? And not really in the mood, perhaps? Yeah. It coulda been Normandy outside last night until quite late. Anyway, here’s a little something to muse on as you ease yourself...
View ArticleThe Gender of “Church” in the BoM
I still have a “church” itch as the idea is found in the BoM. So below, in no particular order, are some observations and thoughts as they stand now: Gendered imagery in the Bible illustrating the...
View ArticleFaith-Promoting [Not] History
Several weeks ago we had a sacrament meeting talk that remains on my mind. The gentleman who concluded the meeting used most of his time to read a story that he frankly admitted came from his mother,...
View ArticleFaith, Scholarship, and Teaching at BYU Series
For the series announcement and the question to which I am replying, see here. I believe that the dichotomy between the “intellectual” and the “spiritual” in religious education is a false one....
View ArticleMormons and Palestinians: Justice and only Justice
With the tragic recent escalation of conflict in Israel-Palestine, my thoughts have turned to experiences I had while living there, first as a naive undergraduate for a semester abroad at the BYU...
View ArticleIsrael’s Past Without the Bible
It may come as a surprise to some that there are texts from ancient Israel, Judah, and its environs that are not found in the Bible. There are also a number of texts from (especially) ancient Egypt,...
View ArticleSlavery in the Eschatological Kingdom
I am following a discussion on David Bokovoy’s wall with some interest. Here he makes an argument, based on Gal 3:27-29, that since slavery will not exist in the Kingdom neither will gender...
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