Historian of Religion, Science, and Biblical Interpretation
Off to the document mines! (Public domain screenshot of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.)
“Well, I’m off to the archives.” “Well, off to the document mines.”
I’ve said that enough in public and to family members over the last five years that a number of them finally started asking, “what are ‘the archives’ and how do you ‘work’ in them?”
A young and pugnacious James E. Talmage, per the picture in the BYU Geology Dept.
The idea of progression between kingdoms in the afterlife has long been debated, with Church leaders taking differing positions. One interesting and well-known point in this debate is textual differences between the first and later editions of Talmage’s The Articles of Faith.1See Dialogue 15:1 (Spring 1982) “Is there Progression Among the Eternal Kingdoms?” p. 181ff However, no one has ever explained why Talmage apparently changed his mind.
I have both taken and taught courses in BYU’s College of Religious Education (RelEd).1Please note: “Religious Education,” not “Religion.” BYU does not teach “religious studies.” And from my own experience and talking to lots of people, it seems many people did not like their RelEd courses.
So let me pull back the curtain a little, as there’s a key to having a good experience. The most important thing to know for a good experience with Religion courses?
Having messed up the audio recording of this fireside the first time, I repeated it over Zoom for some Seminary teachers.
A brief and incomplete story, illustrating Elder Maxwell’s language fun… even in internal memos.
Henry Eyring Sr. taught chemistry at the University of Utah, but also served on the general Sunday School board for the LDS Church from 1946 onwards. He frequently spoke about science and religion. Continue reading
In 1950, a number of LDS teachers at the Logan Institute and BYU signed a letter to President J. Reuben Clark regarding one of their newly-hired colleagues. Continue reading
As noted in a prior post, Orson F. Whitney authored the 1909 First Presidency statement on “The Origin of Man.” He sent a letter to John Widtsoe with that draft, along with some notes. Although Whitney was strongly opposed to evolution, he acknowledge that science could play a role in clarifying earth history. Continue reading
The line “check yourself before you wreck yourself” is from a rap song but also happens to just be good advice. “Chexegesis before you wrexegesis” adapts that wisdom to the realm of scripture, that you shouldn’t make strong declarations about scripture’s meaning without checking up on what it actually says and means. Continue reading
I’ve been writing online for about 17 years, and now with my own site, I get the upside of controlling all my own content, presentation, and associations, and the downside of figuring out how to do the tech aspects, pay for it, etc. Continue reading
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