Dave's Mormon Inquiry

Esoteric Mormonism: Marginal or Mainstream?

I recently finished reading Samuel Brown's In Heaven as It Is on Earth: Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death (Oxford University Press, 2012; publisher's page). It's an impressive book, although I disagree with the implicit argument of the book that the esoteric branch of Joseph Smith's eclectic and diverse theology is central to his thinking and, by extension, should be central to present-day Mormonism. It is a book anyone interested in Mormon Studies should read (twice), but probably not the first or even second book on Joseph Smith that a practicing Mormon should read.

Mormon Doctrine: Confusion or Clarity?

Mormon doctrine is showing up in unlikely places lately, including the campaign trail, where earlier this week Mitt Romney squelched a questioner's short speech that started off quoting from the Pearl of Great Price. I suspect that will not be the last doctrinal question of this campaign. But the glare of heightened publicity and attention that comes with having an LDS candidate on the presidential ticket is making it evident that Mormon doctrine — simply what it is and what it isn't — is just not all that clear.

Mormonism: A Religion of the Head or of the Heart?

That question is not as straightforward as you might think. Garry Wills' Head and Heart: American Christianities (Penguin Press, 2007) reviews these two different approaches and uses them to structure his history of Christianity in America. It is an effective format that helps the reader follow developments, in contrast to most histories of religion in America which are often overloaded with doctrinal and denominational details that have little interest for most contemporary readers.

Review: The Book of Mormon Girl

Joanna Brooks is the Chair of the Department of English and Comparative Literature at San Diego State University. She is the author of several books, most recently The Book of Mormon Girl: Stories From an American Faith (2012). The book is available at Amazon and at the author's website. A short couple of hundred pages, the book is at various turns both enjoyable and troubling, as the author recounts growing up LDS in Southern California, informally leaving the LDS Church then returning to activity, then rather suddenly emerging as a leading voice of what might be termed the progressive Mormon agenda which takes issue with traditional Mormon positions on race and gender. As such, she is on her way to becoming controversial (not generally a compliment in Mormon circles), so I need to start out with a couple of disclaimers.

The Bott Affair: Winners and Losers

It has been only one week since the initial Washington Post article quoting BYU Professor Randy Bott's controversial statements was published. [See Kent's very helpful ongoing chronology of events and published stories.] But a week is a lifetime online. While official and unofficial reactions will continue to play out over coming weeks and months, we can already see who the winners and losers are among the main players. Briefly, the winners are the LDS Church, LDS Public Affairs, LDS bloggers and columnists, the mainstream media, and the rank and file members of the Church. The losers are BYU and the BYU College of Religious Education. Professor Bott gets a category of his own.

A Different Jesus?

Google "a different jesus" and you'll find that 7 of the first 10 links that come up on the first page are about Mormonism. Three of those link to predictable discussions either proclaiming that Mormons worship a different Jesus or arguing that Mormons worship the same Jesus as most other Christians. Four of those link to Robert L. Millet's A Different Jesus? The Christ of the Latter-day Saints (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2005), the book that ought to be a primary reference for those engaging in the discussion, but usually isn't. Along with How Wide the Divide?, it seems like the best book to give to any Christian interested in learning about LDS beliefs concerning Christ (as opposed to what critics portray LDS beliefs to be).

Sports as Religious Experience

That's where two talented philosophers, Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly, end up when they consider All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age (Free Press, 2011). It's the communal experience of being swept up with the crowd in dramatic moments or of sharing with the onlooking crowd a remarkable moment of peak performance that the authors are embracing:

The Not-So-Great Apostasy

I have seen several notices publicizing an upcoming conference at BYU, Exploring Mormon Conceptions of the Apostasy. Sounds interesting, particularly in light of the one-paragraph blurb stating goals for the conference, which challenges rank and file members of the Church as well as scholars to reconsider LDS views of "the Great Apostasy":

Blog Addiction

Addiction has become a central concept for the ills of society. Oddly, addiction has also become a keyword in modern LDS discourse, occupying a vaguely defined middle ground between sin (we don't approve of addictive behaviors) and illness (we want to cure them). So this morning I'm just a few pages into Hubert Drefus and Sean Dorrance Kelley's All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age (Free Press, 2011) when up pops this entirely unexpected critique of blogging as an addiction.

The Real World of the Book of Mormon

This is the fourth in a series of posts taking a broad look at the Book of Mormon. This post continues the discussion of the prior post, The Book of Mormon as Narrative, by considering verisimilitude. This term refers to how faithfully a text represents the real world or, to various degrees, depicts events that do not conform to the readers' view of the real world.

The Book of Mormon as Narrative

This is the third post in a series taking a broad view of the Book of Mormon (first, second). In this post I will discuss aspects of narrative encountered in the text. Not all scripture is narrative: consider the lengthy legal codes in the Torah and the moral exhortation found in James. Not all historical accounts are in the form of a narrative, although most history books written for the popular market are narrative histories. Most novels are in the form of a narrative, including historical fiction, which adds authorial speculation to large chunks of authentic history, often mixing fictional characters with actual historical figures and events.

The Book of Mormon: What has it done for you lately?

Julie is posting detailed commentary and Kent is providing literary reflection; I'm afraid all I have to offer on the Book of Mormon is general observations. This week let's talk about situating the book as a whole, not so much in terms of content and form (which I'll address in later posts) but in terms of function and use. How does the Church use the Book of Mormon? How do you use the Book of Mormon?

Which Book of Mormon?

The flurry of posts at T&S and elsewhere around the Bloggernacle is a reminder that 2012 is Book of Mormon year in Gospel Doctrine class. Which Book of Mormon are you going to read?

Under the Tree: LDS Beliefs

The latest book to digest Mormon doctrine for the popular LDS audience is LDS Beliefs: A Doctrinal Reference (Deseret Book, 2011), by four BYU religion professors: Robert L. Millet, Camille Fronk Olson, Andrew C. Skinner, and Brent L. Top. Entries are alphabetical, with authorship and cited sources listed following each and every entry. It's out just in time for Christmas and will no doubt find its way under the tree in many LDS homes, as well it should. The best way to summarize the strengths of this one-volume reference work is to compare and contrast it with other modern attempts to summarize LDS doctrine: Bruce R. McConkie's Mormon Doctrine, True to the Faith, and The Encyclopedia of Mormonism.

Religious Anti-Intellectualism

A few weeks ago two Evangelical scholars authored "The Evangelical Rejection of Reason," an op-ed at the New York Times lamenting the fact that the Republican primary race "has become a showcase of evangelical anti-intellectualism." While the Mormons in the race, Romney and Huntsman, were described as "the two candidates who espouse the greatest support for science," the discussion still invites the LDS reader to reflect a bit on whether there is a similar strain of LDS anti-intellectualism evident in LDS culture if not in LDS presidential candidates.

Do Mormons Get a Seat at the Table?

I just started reading the recently published Tri-Faith America: How Catholics and Jews Held Postwar America to Its Protestant Promise, by Kevin M. Schultz (OUP, 2011). With Mitt Romney's Mormon-ness continuing to be an oddly fascinating topic for the mainstream media, a point of criticism and ridicule for journalist comedians (they think they are journalists, I think they are comedians), and a strategic weakness to be exploited by Rick Perry and possibly other candidates, Tri-Faith America seems like a very timely book.

LDS Men Aren't Incredible

Wheat & Tares ran a fun post earlier this week titled LDS Men Are Incredible ... although the URL string shows that the original draft title of the post was "Why Men Suck." That kind of marks off the two ends of the spectrum, doesn't it? That's a nice lead-in for the question: What remarks are going to be directed at LDS men in next week's General Conference?

Creationism and LDS Seminary

It's late September and LDS high school students really should be back at school ... and back at seminary. This year's course of study is the Old Testament, which covers (or has already covered) Genesis 1 and the Creation. I hope LDS seminary teachers can teach Creation without teaching Creationism. But I fear some LDS teachers won't or can't make that distinction, so it is likely some LDS seminary students are going to go home this week thinking Creationism is the LDS view about Creation. That is very sad and sets up LDS kids to have a bad experience when they inevitably take high school or university science courses.

Bible, Church, and Mystic

On a recent trip, I took along as reading material Christianity: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2004) by Linda Woodhead. Like all of the books in the wildly successful VSI series, the book is short but informative. I want to focus on the author's analysis of how views about divine power and earthly authority can be used to classify Christian churches and denominations, then try to place Mormonism and the LDS Church within that classification scheme.

An Unsettling Book: Grant Hardy's Understanding the Book of Mormon

This is the fourth in a series of reviews of Grant Hardy's Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader's Guide (OUP, 2010) that we are posting this week at Times and Seasons. It says something about the book that there is still a lot to talk about.

Who Wrote the Gospels?

It always helps to know who wrote what you are reading, and Bible books are no exception. The four gospels, in particular, present interesting questions of how the narratives were composed and who did the composing.

A Woman's Religion?

That's the title of Chapter 7 in Christianity: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2004) by Linda Woodhead, in which the author tackles the general problem of the gender gap (women are disproportionately represented in the pool of church-goers across all Christian denominations, including the LDS Church). Why so many women and why not more men in most congregations?

Putting Bible Problems on the Shelf

Here's a quote from The Rise and Fall of the Bible (2011), by Timothy Beal, a religion prof at Case Western Reserve (I didn't know they had religion profs there). It considers the question of how to deal with scriptural contradictions or problems, and it seems interesting because it is a conservative Christian context rather than an LDS context.

Priesthood Principles

This post was part of a series on Handbook 2 at Times and Seasons.

Our series continues by looking at Priesthood Principles, the second of three foundational chapters found in the recently published Handbook 2 ("H2"). I'll first touch on the status of H2, then discuss some of the topics covered in the three pages of Chapter Two.

Doctrine and Practice

I enjoyed Alison's post from a couple of weeks ago, Does Gender Matter?, but I'm a little confused how the pieces fit together. The post appears to accept the nonscriptural, uncanonized Proclamation at face value, stating: "Gender is part of who we are and who we have always been. It is important. It matters." That makes it difficult to argue for reform of what is identified as a problem: "The church uses gender to delineate authority, callings, and roles." However, there is a different way to see the issue.

Cafeteria Correlation

Karl Giberson's Saving Darwin: How to Be a Christian and Believe in Evolution (HarperOne, 2008) relates Giberson's journey from fundamentalist Christian student to still-believing but no longer fundamentalist physicist. Chapter 5 of the book critiques the sources of Young Earth Creationism (YEC), primarily George McCready Price's The New Geology, published in 1923, and Whitcomb and Morris's The Genesis Flood, published in 1961. As Price's book is also a source for LDS YEC beliefs — which for some bizarre reason still seem to guide Correlation in approving statements made in LDS publications — the chapter seems particularly helpful for Latter-day Saints seeking to understand LDS views on science and evolution.

What Historicity Means to Christians

We all know what "historicity" means to Mormons and the issues that term points to, but what does it mean to conservative Christians? The June 2011 Christianity Today editorial "No Adam, No Eve, No Gospel" is a good discussion of what the issues are for conservative Christians.

The Language of God

I recently breezed through a short book by Herman Wouk (author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Caine Mutiny) titled The Language God Talks: On Science and Religion (Little, Brown and Co., 2010). The book has the virtues of being short, entertaining, and informative as it recounts the author's quest to relate his deep religious and cultural attachment to Judaism to his equally firm attachment to a scientific worldview. That's the sort of quest many people in the 21st century are engaged in at one time or another.

Divided by God

That's the title of a 2005 book by Noah Feldman, Divided by God: America's Church-State Problem — and What We Should Do About It. Inspired by Adam Miller's chapter-by-chapter discussion at T&S of Jim Faulconer's recent book Faith, Philosophy, Scripture, I am going to try a similar series with Divided by God. Feldman is a law professor at Harvard; the book is largely a historical review of the emergence and evolution of church-state law in the United States. That history and the present state of church-state law is often misrepresented, so this seems like a helpful discussion.

Ex-Mormon Orson Pratt, Jr.

I'm sure you have heard of Orson Pratt, 19th century LDS apostle, but I'm guessing you haven't heard much about his son, Orson Jr. Here's a paragraph from a post titled "Orson Pratt, Jr., Erastus Snow, apostasy and excommunication." at the Ogden Standard-Examiner's media blog Political Surf.

FPR Mulls Mormon Acronyms

Faith-Promoting Rumor is generally a fairly quiet group blog populated by pseudonymous theology bloggers putting up sophisticated posts. Definitely on my A-list. Then, suddenly, this recent orgy of confessional self-categorization: one proclaims himself a TBML (True Believing Mormon Liberal); another coins for himself the moniker HASM (Hopeful Agnostic Sympathetic Mormon); and a third adopts an inverse definition by declaring that he is not one of those people who uses the seemingly derogatory term TBM (True Believing Mormon) or even associates with groups that use the term. Maybe the world really is ending on Saturday. The FPR-types would be the ones to know. The rest of the crew better self-identify before they miss their chance!

Rethinking the Proclamation

What exactly is the Proclamation, or, to use its full title, The Family: A Proclamation to the World? It is not scripture. It is not a revelation. It is not even a Conference talk. What is it? What status does the Proclamation have at present in the LDS Church?

Church Discipline in the Internet Age

Sometimes technology changes everything. First came writing, then television, now the Internet: Instant global publishing by just about anyone on the planet. You. Me. The guy who just got called in for a chat with his stake president.

Making Mormons in the 21st Century

Jan Shipps always has something interesting to say about Mormonism. An essay you might not have run across is "Making Saints: In the Early Days and the Latter Days," in Contemporary Mormonism: Social Science Perspectives (Univ. of Illinois Press, 1994). It turns out that becoming a Latter-day Saint (or acquiring the characteristics of Mormon ethnicity) involves more than just conversion or joining the Church.

More on the Mormon Gender Gap

Once upon a time, I wrote a post titled "The Puzzling Mormon Gender Gap." It is still puzzling, primarily because it seems so inconsistent with the popular picture of the Church as a patriarchal institution run by old white males. When the topic came up recently in a ZD thread, the ZD discussants (generally a fairly rational bunch) simply denied the data. Well, I think the question is too important and too interesting to dismiss simply because LDS feminists (and I use that as a descriptive term, not a dismissive one) don't want to talk about it.

Debating Mormonism

A few weeks ago I judged several rounds of a debating tournament held at the local high school. Teams from all over the state participated. Imagine walking by a high school cafeteria and seeing a couple of hundred students dressed in suits and skirts, chattering like all kids do but also pouring over notes and outlines for the upcoming matches. It was an impressive sight.

Reading Scripture in the 21st Century

I recently read Thinking Through Our Faith: Theology for Twenty-first-Century Christians (Abingdon Press, 1998) by C. David Grant, a professor of religion at TCU. The book might be described as a short prologue to a 21st-century approach to theology, one that takes full account of science, historical criticism, and pluralism — in short, the sort of book you probably would not encounter in a BYU undergraduate religion class.

Regime Change in the LDS Church

I recently finished America's Three Regimes: A New Political History (OUP, 2007) by Morton Keller, a retired history prof at Brandeis. The author suggests there have been three enduring American political regimes: a deferential-republican regime that lasted from the Revolution until the emergence of true party politics (Whigs and Democrats) during the 1830s; a party-democratic regime marked by strong party identification and increasing voter mobilization that lasted until roughly the Great Depression; and a populist-bureaucratic regime that saw the rise of big government, the rise of the independent media, and the decline of party identification and effectiveness. Can LDS history be parsed the same way? Are there successive LDS regimes (using "regime" in the same sense as Keller did, an enduring, stable arrangement of institutions and practices) that display significantly different ways of running the Church or of constituting the Church as an organization?

Tsunami

I am sure that many of you have been following the stunning events in Japan: earthquake, tsunami, meltdown. Our first personal reaction to such events is always concern and sympathy for those swept up in the ongoing human tragedy. The first LDS institutional response, when resources are available, is to forward relief supplies and helping hands to those in need of assistance. But at some later point comes personal and institutional reflection. Is this just the sort of natural tragedy that happens from time to time, or is it a divine sign of the end times? Or both?

Challenges of Church History

Just finished A Brief History of History: Great Historians and the Epic Quest to Explain the Past (The Lyons Press, 2008) by Colin Wells. It is a quick review of all those names you have heard a time or two (Thucydides, Tacitus, Guicciardini, Ranke, Burckhardt, Turner, Braudel, etc.) woven together into a narrative. Favorite quote: “History is everywhere; we live in it.” The comments in the book that are worth discussing at an LDS blog concern the challenges of writing Church History.

Almost Mormon

I recently finished Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the American Church (OUP, 2010) by Kenda Creasy Dean, a professor at the Princeton Theological Seminary. Chapter 3, entitled "Mormon Envy," naturally attracted my attention.

Cruise Control and Doctrinal Ditches

On Friday night, I was heading up the Snake River Canyon toward Jackson Hole, with snow falling gently through the darkness. At the entrance to the canyon, the following message was brightly displayed on a portable electronic sign: "Slippery spots: Turn off cruise control." I have never seen that particular message on a traffic sign before. Good advice, of course -- you'll live longer if you are thinking (cruise control off, brain on) while driving on slick roads.

Church and Family

After a flurry of posts related to the new edition of the CHI (now titled Handbook 1 and Handbook 2), the Bloggernacle has fallen silent. (The Salt Lake Tribune has followed up with a helpful article.) One of the new features of Handbook 2 ("H2") highlighted in the worldwide training broadcast is the three introductory chapters that provide a foundational and doctrinal context for the guidance given in the balance of the book. I am going to note a few statements given in the four pages of Chapter 1, "Families and the Church in God's Plan," with short comments following each statement. The bold titles are my own; all quotes are from H2.

Downgrading Doctrine

Here is a second post (see No. 1) drawn from Stephen Prothero's God Is Not One (HarperOne, 2010). In Chapter 7, titled Judaism: The Way of Exile and Return, Prothero comments on how ritual and ethics receive greater emphasis in Judaism and doctrine receives less emphasis than in, for example, Christianity. I wonder to what extent this is also true of Mormonism.

Mormonism in God Is Not One

I've been reading Stephen Prothero's new book, God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World -- and Why Their Differences Matter (HarperOne, 2010). I'm rather enjoying it, which is a bit of a surprise given that I'm not generally a religions of the world kind of guy. Anyway, Prothero devoted a generous two pages in his 34-page chapter on Christianity to Mormonism and said some refreshingly pleasant things about us.

How to Read the Bible

Last month I did a series of posts on religion and science; the theme for November is interpreting the scriptures. (Since November basically ends when Thanksgiving hits, I'm borrowing a week from October.) First up: a few thoughts on Steven McKenzie's book How to Read the Bible: History, Literature, and Prophecy -- Why Modern Readers Need to Know the Difference, and What it Means for Faith Today (OUP, 2005).

A Writer on Science and Religion

In this final installment of this month's series of posts on religion and science, I will present a different take on things from the perspective of a celebrated writer. Marilynne Robinson won a Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for her novel Gilead. She also delivered the Terry Lectures at Yale in 2009, resulting in the book Absence of Mind: The Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self (Yale Univ. Press, 2010), from which I draw the following quotations and summaries.

Science and Religion: Enemies or Partners?

For the next installment in this set of posts, let's consider the relation between science and religion. In a mildly tedious but well-organized book, When Science Meets Religion: Enemies, Strangers, or Partners? (HarperCollins, 2000), Ian Barbour lays out four basic forms that the relation between science and religion can take: Conflict (either science or religion is correct, but not both); Independence (science and religion refer to different domains or aspects of reality); Dialogue (where discussions about method, metaphysics, and metaphor can enlighten both scientists and theologians); and Integration (natural theology or theology of nature approaches try to unite some or all aspects of science and theology). Which of these views or models correspond to the LDS approach?

Correlation is Killing Sunday School

Once upon a time, there was Sunday School, an independent auxiliary whose officers were appointed by senior LDS leaders and whose primary task was to develop a Sunday School curriculum, and commission and supervise the writing of lesson manuals. They did a nice job. Then came Correlation.

Jonah, Overboard

If you haven't heard the story in Sunday School yet, you will shortly (Jonah 1). Surprisingly, the combination of God and bad weather is still a potent force in the modern era -- my stake was praying for rain earlier this year. But here is a more colorful Jonah-like account with sailors, storms, and witches from the 17th century.