Grains of Life: Fragments of a Sonnet Cycle
April 17, 2018If I could give to you a dew-wrapped day,
You have no need to tell me — I should know
That you would use it all to make things grow.
The furling bud, the fruiting branch are pay
DiaBLOGue
Mining Mormon Gold | J. Kenneth Davies, Mormon Gold: The Story of California’s Mormon Argonauts
April 17, 2018This book is as much a history of the Mormon Church in California during the 1847-57 decade as it is a history of Mormon gold mining. The author gives a plethora of detail concerning both…
Mormonism from the Top Down | Gordon Shepherd and Gary Shepherd, A Kingdom Transformed: Themes in the Development of Mormonism
April 17, 2018A Kingdom Transformed is required reading for anyone who may feel that statistical analysis can make only negligible contributions to the study of Mormon history and culture. Those who were already believers in the value…
Penetrating Muddied Waters: Creationism and Evolution | Michael Ruse, Darwinism Defended: A Guide to the Evolution Controversies, Norman D. Newell, Creation and Evolution: Myth or Reality?, Niles Eldredge, The Monkey Business: A Scientist Looks at Evolution, and Philip Kitcher, Abusing Science: The Case Against Creationism
April 17, 2018The conflict between creationism and evolution in the past few years has prob ably brought mixed feelings to many Latter day Saints. Although some excellent scholarship has demonstrated that we have little or nothing in common with the philosophical positions held by modern creationists (Jeffery 1973), their combination of conservative politics, religious devoutness, and concern with the moral condition of our society are appealing to many Mormons.
Among the Mormons: A Selected Bibliography of Recent Books
April 17, 2018A formidable challenge faces those who try to write confidently about Mormonism only to be denied access to critical resources. It is widely felt among those who follow Mormon scholarship that both Leonard J. Arrington and…
Mornings
April 17, 2018I Friday morning. June sky like denim through the bus windows. The last day before the weekend, Marc repeated to himself, like a gypsy muttering a chant. He swung off the bus four blocks before his…
The Third Nephi Disaster: A Geological View
April 17, 2018One of the most vivid descriptions of the utter destruction of cities and the death of hundreds of thousands of people is found in 3 Nephi 8 of the Book of Mormon. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides,…
John Taylor’s Religious Preparation
April 17, 2018In the spring of 1836 when John Taylor was baptized in Toronto by Parley P. Pratt, he had completed a quest for religious certainty. His search had taken him from Methodism to Christian Primitivism and had…
Science: A Part of or Apart from Mormonism?
April 17, 2018Every art and science known and studied by the children of men is comprised within the Gospel. President Brigham Young, 1868 (JD 12:257) Beware of false science. Priests Study Course, 1973 (Series B, p. 79) For three decades I…
Joseph Smith, Sr., Dreams of His Namesake
April 17, 2018Vermont, Autumn 1805
And the boy, the milky angel said,
will be like the wild rain
that shatters the crops and spins the brittle stalks
end upon end.