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Bathing a Child

            Elbow-deep in shallow water 
            with porcelain pressed against my breast 
I dragged the sudsy washcloth 
over your squirming body 

A Look at Ephesians 2:8-9

Ephesians 2:8-9 (KJV) speaks of salvation coming through the grace of God: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:/ Not of works, lest any man should boast.” The interpretation of these verses is controversial.

Chaotic Matter: Eugene England’s “The Dawning of a Brighter Day”

More than ten years after the original appearance of an essay might be too long to wait to respond to it, but the republication of Eugene En gland’s “Dawning of a Brighter Day: Mormon Literature after 150 years” as the inaugural essay of Wasatch Review International (vol. 1 [1992], no. 1) calls for a response.

The Continuing Quest for the Historical Jesus

In 1975 I enrolled in the divinity school at the University of Chicago, where I hoped to earn a Ph.D. under Norman Perrin, a distinguished British New Testament scholar. But a call I made at the same time to the head of the LDS Church Education System in Salt Lake City stopped me cold in my tracks. He told me that if I wanted to teach New Testament for the church I could do so with a Ph.D. in physics or family counseling— anything but a degree in New Testament studies. That attitude has created a vacuum in serious New Testament studies among Latter-day Saints. One way to fill this void is to become a member of the Westar Institute of Sonoma, California, whose goal, among others, is to expose the public to serious biblical scholarship. 

Lucifer’s Legacy

Twice now I’ve been told straight out and in so many words, “Don’t be too honest!” Both times this earnest counsel came from men whose friendship I cherish and whose priesthood callings command my respect.…

The Violent Woman

Sarah your clarinet 
body squeaks at the valves, moans 
off key, and lying still 
and flat as a paper doll