I gave my second Institute lecture on the early chapters of Genesis this week, and laid some important groundwork.
Some announcements, new videos, and personal lessons
Before anything else… I will not have weekly posts on Doctrine&Covenants because a) it’s not my area, and b) I think it’s our hardest book to teach in the four-year cycle. I really struggle with D&C, to be honest. There will be some posts here and there, but I’m trying to write some books and articles.
Merry Christmas! I Give You… My Dissertation On Latter-day Saints and Creation/Evolution Conflict
Now available from ProQuest, in Pdf, paperback, or hardcover, the new hot dissertation EVERYONE wants to read!
“The Scientist is Wrong”: Joseph Fielding Smith, George McCready Price, and the Ascent of Creationist Thought among Latter-day Saints in the Twentieth Century
A few notes, followed by the Dissertation Abstract, and my story:
Mary and the Annunciation as a Model for Scripture Study
At the opening of BYU’s 2019 Reconciling Evolution workshop—which focuses on biology pedagogy with religious students— Associate Academic Vice-President John Rosenberg represented the University in welcoming the dozens of participants to BYU. He spoke on the pursuit of knowledge, using medieval depictions of Mary, Gabriel, and the Annunciation. I have adapted my notes from his presentation for this post, by permission.
Church History/ Doctrine& Covenants Resources (and the blog) for 2025
(Post with minor updates from four years ago.)
I do not intend to write a weekly post on the Come Follow Me section. D&C is the book I have taught the least, read the least, know the least about, and have the most limited mental bibliography. While I do American religious history, 1820-1850 is not my time period or specialty at all. Second, I am up to my eyeballs in writing projects: turning my dissertation into a book, some spin-off articles, and some other things. I will continue to write posts, some about D&C and Church history, but approximately… whenever the muse strikes and I have time.
Canaanite Santa Claus, Handel’s Messiah, and the Real St. Nicholas
I’ve plugged Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR) before, a great magazine (with pictures!) aimed at laypeople interested in the history, text, interpretation, and archaeology of the Bible. (Notably, there are some LDS in there from time to time!) It’s scholarly but accessible, includes multiple perspectives, and the letters to the editor are illustrative and amusing. Worth subscribing to. Continue reading
A Missionary Reminiscence on Christmas in Western Europe
This is one of a series of seasonal posts I put up every year.
When the mission president announced to our small group of greenies that I was going to Strasbourg, on France’s eastern border, I shrugged the resigned shrug of a missionary who knew nothing about anywhere but was willing to go wherever. One of the sisters expressed jealousy; Strasbourg, she said, was one of the best cities in the mission.
She was right, and it would not be a good thing. Continue reading
A Brief Note on Tradition and Paradigms, illustrated by Nephi, Lehi, and Moses
Elder John Widtsoe expressed a very useful axiom about inspired writers.
Come Follow Me: Ether
A few general introductory notes about the Book of Ether.
First, unlike the other two Book of Mormon migratory peoples, the Jaredites (as we call them) are not under the Law of Moses. Abraham>Isaac>Jacob (Israel)>>>>Moses. They’re not Jewish nor even Israelite (also a late term) nor Canaanite, but Mesopotamian, probably. So they are operating under a different set of religious ideas, different language— Sumerian, Akkadian, something else? Hebrew isn’t an option— and different cultural background than the rest of the Book of Mormon. And indeed, Ether has a different feel to it than the rest. It’s largely political history, stories of wars between scheming royal families, imprisonment, regicide, etc. All very Game of Thrones-y. Continue reading
“And God answered out of the maelstrom”: Rethinking Revelation with Job, the Constitution, and President Eyring
One model of revelation we invoke often is “the still small voice,” which phrasing comes from Elijah in 1ki 19:12. But scripture and history often provide us with multiple models, and I think there’s another one we should consider.
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