On the Sunday afternoon following the Crucifixion, two of Christ’s disciples made their way to a place called Emmaus, a small town seven or eight miles from Jerusalem. This is a journey that began in despair and concluded in hope, and I wish to examine this transformation and apply it to the human condition.
Flat, oval galaxies float—indeterminately
Distant yet distinct—above. . .glimmer and prepare
To fade into determinate darkness.
I was scrunched behind the big over-stuffed sofa, reading the forbidden works of Mark Twain. Oh horrors, I was reading the most forbidden book of all, Roughing It. I was tittering over what he said…
We inch forward on hearsay,
rumors, and puffs of wind,
working the ancient arts
of dead reckoning, stars,
Most likely it was an act of God that
the cathedral caught fire even before
the hangman put the mask on my head
and all my executioners ran in search of water
According to traditional theism, God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent. If God were omnibenevolent, he would want to eliminate evil. If God were omnipotent, he would be able to eliminate evil. So why should there be any evil? This problem is, by far, the most discussed subject in the philosophy of religion. In this paper, I argue that rejecting the traditional notion of God is the best way to deal with this problem.
Robert Nisbet defines the idea of progress as the notion that mankind has advanced in the past from barbarism and ignorance, is now advancing, and will continue to advance through the foreseeable future. It is arguably the central motivating philosophy that has led men and women throughout history to forge ahead to a brighter future.
I hope I’m not extending the metaphor too far, but it seems apparent the field is less white and more colorful as the church moves into the twenty first century. Most church members are aware (although some along the Wasatch Front have a hard time visualizing it) that rapid growth rates in Latin America, Africa, and the Philippines are essentially among people of color. However, it is my contention that future growth of the church even in the bastions of Nordic, Teutonic, British, and Celtic Europe—a region which supplied membership and leadership during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—will increasingly be among people of color not native to the European continent.
In 1889, Utah newspapers and periodicals informed their audiences about the start of a new monthly magazine, the Young Woman’s Journal (YWJ). Initiated and first edited by Susa Young Gates, the daughter of Mormonism’s second…
In this paper, I sing the virtues of Edward W. Tullidge, English convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, cultural enthusiast, and serious journalist and author. Tullidge, who was mercurial, changeable, and…