Historian of Religion, Science, and Biblical Interpretation
Communication involves not just words, but the context, culture, and worldview in which they are embedded. Simple translation of words alone, reading words alone, however “clear,” will fail to communicate the entire message, because this kind of information is tacit and unstated. Sometimes we can tell we’re missing an intangible something, but most often we can’t even tell that, illustrated extensively in Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes.
Here are some modern examples. Continue reading
(Originally published in 2010 elsewhere) Most people know the genre of “parable” because they’re in the Gospels, but “myth” is poorly understood and the term carries a lot of negative baggage. Like “literal” you have to be very careful throwing around the term without defining it. One simple definition of myth is that myth is worldview in narrative form. That is, it’s a way of explaining one’s conception of how the world works in everyday language or story form. Continue reading
Elder Bednar in General Conference talked about the spread of temples throughout the world, as well as doubling the number of available languages of the presentation of temple ordinances. This got me thinking again about something I think about from time to time: the state of our collective temple knowledge and how it affects our temple experience.
Since I have a lot of links below, let me summarize with these three bullet points. Continue reading
My musical tastes are… eclectic. But on days like Good Friday, when I want music to orient myself towards the sacred, the holy, the divine, the cosmic, the music I like tends to share several imprecise elements. Continue reading
Sundown over Galilee (my pic)
We often assert that the Book of Mormon is historical in nature, and necessarily so, in my view. But we must equally recognize that it’s historical nature certainly does not mean it was written as modern history, with our expectations about what history-writing means. Continue reading
I’m happy to report my proposal for the American Academy of Religion (AAR) national conference has been accepted. AAR traditionally meets with the Society of Biblical Literature in a massive multi-day conference attended by thousands. This year it’s in Boston, mid/late November. I pray by then we’ll be back to some kind of normalcy. (NB: I withdrew due to covid, and never presented the paper.) Continue reading
I have a young friend currently serving a mission in Norway, who is confined to her apartment except for groceries and cabin-fever prevention walks. She asked me to send her some reading, which prompted this post.
Missionaries tend to be out and about. Being in an apartment with minimal internet or personal connection can lead to feelings of wasted time and lack of utility. But it’s also a real opportunity for missionaries to dedicate time they wouldn’t otherwise have to some intensive and important study, about our own scriptures (especially the Book of Mormon), scripture we share with other Christians (especially the New Testament), or Church history and doctrine. Continue reading
March 2020 I recently did two firesides: one on how Latter-day Saints came to read scripture in stark anti-evolutionary ways, the other on making sense of LDS creation accounts in light of what we know about both scripture and science.
During the Q&A, a young sister missionary assigned to the Visitor’s Center asked a practical question.
As missionaries, what can we do to promote this kind of understanding as we teach the simple truths of the Gospel?
I’ve been a user of Logos for almost 20 years. It’s my research library. I’ve written about how to use its free software; you buy the books, and can buy extra functionality, but you can download and get a lot of usage out of it for free. My previous posts about using Logos to get at Greek and Hebrew (instead of using Strong’s) here and here. I made some video demos, and there are many more on the logos.com site.
Every March, Logos holds March Madness uh, March Matchups. It’s a little different every year, but books, authors, or collections go into a bracket, and users vote. Every week, the winners move forward, with increasing discounts, until there is only one. The winning books/collections this year get 60% off, which can be significant. Below is my “voting guide” for LDS users. Continue reading
It’s been a remarkably good Monday morning. Chilly, but I scored a $72 long-sleeve Merino wool bike jersey for $18 recently, and so went out for a 24-mile ride in 40 degree weather.
Chilaquiles!
Made myself chilaquiles afterwards. Bit of a foodie here. (This has been rewritten afterwards, since it was an announcement.)
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