Genesis Chiasmus
November 4, 2020In the Big Ending,
My son used to say
When I read him the Genesis board book.
Which was perfect, I thought.
DiaBLOGue
Born Again
November 4, 2020Because I did not fit a second time
in the womb of my mother,
I was born of my father instead.
The Limits of Naturalistic Criteria for the Book of Mormon: Comparing Joseph Smith and Andrew Jackson Davis
November 4, 2020Dialogue 53.3 (Fall 2020): 73–103
Davis compares the two men, saying “Davis, like Smith, was raised in a poor household and received little formal education—Davis, in fact, would claim to have received only “little more than five months” of schooling.”
Revisiting Joseph Smith and the Availability of the Book of Enoch
November 4, 2020Dialogue 53.3 (Fall 2020): 41–106
Regarding the discussions in Mormon studies and other literary sub-fields related to contemporaries of Smith, the availability of ideas about 1 Enoch and some of the actual content were far more complicated than has usually been assumed in past scholarship.
On Care: Performative Theology, Mosiah, and a Gathered Community
November 4, 2020The question I am considering here is at its heart relational. What kind of relationship with scripture exists within performative theology? When we understand scripture as wisdom rather than history, what does this understanding do…
Performative Theology: Not Such a New Thing
November 4, 2020A movement called “scriptural theology” has been part of academic theology for some time now, since the 1980s or earlier.[1] In spite of that, with some exceptions I will note, it has had little impact…
The Logic of the Gospel
September 15, 2020There are those who delight in pitting faith against reason and who thereby dis parage thinking in order to exalt religion. They even find scriptural justification for taking this stance in the writings of Paul,…
The Little Man Who Isn’t There
September 15, 2020Mormons might find particular interest in the recent defeat by the California legislature of a bill that would have repealed all laws against sexual relationships by consenting adults. Only an impassioned stand by a coterie of legislators from that strong hold of rectitude commonly known as Rafferty Country prevented its passage, as members of this group with Bibles opened thundered denunciation of the abominations of Sodom and Gomorrah. Proponents of the defeated bill remained confident, however, of its eventual passage in future sessions, and predicted that similar legislation will within a few years prevail throughout most of the nation.
Mr. Mustard Plaster
September 15, 2020I never intended to leave Utah. In fact, I didn’t leave until I was sixteen, and that was only a trip to my father’s hometown in Wyoming. I didn’t make it to California until I…
Failure in the Home
September 15, 2020A few days ago I was chatting with a good friend, a psychotherapist of rather remarkable competence and ability. This man, a very active and deeply committed Mormon, has been especially effective in working with…