The lord whose oracle is at Delphi neither speaks nor conceals, but gives signs (Heraclitus). Three steps. A terrace. Five steps. A terrace. Seven steps. A terrace. Nine steps. A final broad terrace. Stone sphinxes (one…
Near the beginning of my professional career at Brigham Young University, a community sage (who had observed a continuing struggle to merge the intellectual with the spiritual at the institution) asked me: “Harold, are you…
The tenth Article of Faith states the Mormon belief that “Christ will reign personally upon the earth.” This is usually taken to mean that Christ will literally return to the earth at the Second Coming…
The transformation of the Mormon Church from a radical nineteenth century socio-religious movement into a respectable denomination in the twentieth century raises sociological questions on whether or how distinctive Mormon elements can survive in our…
John Smith, brother of Joseph Smith, Sr., and uncle of the Prophet Joseph Smith, was an unspectacular, though far from ordinary man. Amid the troubles and uncertainties following the June 1844 martyrdom of the Prophet…
The “Lectures on Faith,” seven 1834-35 lessons on theology and doctrine prepared for the “School of the Elders” in Kirtland, Ohio, were canonized in the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants by official vote…
Utah satirist Al Church, among other suggestions on how to survive as a gentile in Utah, offered this tip: “Ask guides at the Beehive House how many wives Brigham Young had. (Of my last four…
Situated on a prominent knoll in the Oakland hills, the Oakland Temple is the most visible symbol of the Church in the San Francisco Bay Area. The temple is located within the boundaries of the…
Huxley’s Brave New World, Orwell’s 1984, and Vonnegut’s Player Piano all envision a world where the system—big bureaucracy, big government, corporations, changing technology, or a mix of these—achieves total, albeit benign, control. The individual is…