"Study says near extinction threatened people 70,000 years ago" at Yahoo News. Apparently nasty African droughts pushed the taxed human population down to about 2000 struggling souls. So were God and His angels on high thinking, "Get it together people, or we're going to have to send down five billion spirits as cats?" Or was this all just a part of the Plan? Makes me want to go dig up The Seven Daughters of Eve from my backroom bookshelf and read it.
Walker, Turley, & Leonard: Massacre at Mountain Meadows
This long-awaited book on the occurrence at Mountain Meadows is set for release August 19.
The Skeleton in Grandpa's Barn: And Other Stories of Growing Up in Utah
A collection of 18 articles from the Utah Historical Quarterly, covering a variety of topics related to childhood and the experience of youth in 19th- and 20th-century Utah.
My review • Pub Note
Douglas Davies: The Mormon Culture of Salvation: Force, Grace and Glory
Uses a variety of sociology of religion and religious studies methods to look at LDS doctrine and cultural practice related to death and salvation. Includes a lengthy consideration of the "world religion" question.
My Post • Pub Note
Terryl L. Givens: People of Paradox: A History of Mormon Culture
Givens considers the history of LDS architecture, music, dance, theater, literature, cinema, and scholarship in light of four "paradoxes" or tensions in Mormon culture: authority vs. autonomy, certainty vs. searching, sacred vs. banal, and election vs. exile.
Post 1 • Pub Note • OUP Blog • T&S interview
Bart D. Ehrman: God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question--Why We Suffer
Ehrman examines five biblical explanations for suffering and evil: divine punishment, human action, redemptive suffering, inscrutable mystery, and apocalyptic dualism.
Pub Note • My Review
F. E. Peters: The Voice, the Word, the Books: The Sacred Scripture of the Jews, Christians, and Muslims
Great scholarly overview of scripture as a general category. Jacket blurb: "Brings the latest Biblical and Quranic scholarship to a general audience."
Stephen Prothero: Religious Literacy
Noted scholar of religion laments the religious ignorance of Americans (first half of book) and provides a 90-page "dictionary of religious literacy" to help solve the problem.
Post 1 • Post 2 • Post 3
Simon Baron-Cohen: The Essential Difference: The Truth about the Male and Female Brain
Presents research that, even at birth, female brains are predisposed toward empathy and figuring out "other minds," whereas male brains are inclined to systematize and classify.
My Review
On the Road With Joseph Smith: An Author's Diary
Richard L. Bushman's reflections on the year he spent promoting his biography of Joseph Smith.
Post 1 • Post 2 • Post 3
Building the Kingdom: A History of Mormons in America
Claudia and Richard Bushman's fine short history of the LDS Church.
Pub Note • Post
Mormons and Mormonism: An Introduction to an American World Religion
A collection of scholarly essays by a variety of LDS and non-LDS scholars, edited by Eric Eliason.
Pub Note • Post
A Mormon in the White House?
Hugh Hewitt's political biography of Mitt Romney. • Post
The Angel and the Beehive
Armand Mauss uses sociology and history to look at the 20th-century LDS stuggle to be accepted as mainstream while retaining a unique Mormon identity.
Pub Note • My Review
Mauss interview • 12Qa • 12Qb
The Mormon Way of Doing Business: Leadership and Success Through Faith and Family
LDS CEOs on how to succeed in business without selling your soul.
Pub Note • My Review
Kathleen Flake: The Politics of American Religious Identity: The Seating of Senator Reed Smoot, Mormon Apostle
How a generation of Mormons learned the art of politics and became full-fledged Americans again.
My Review • 12Q
Between the Testaments: From Malachi to Matthew
Fill in that puzzling 500-year gap between the Old and New Testaments.
Pub Note • Part 1 • Part 2
Sojourner in the Promised Land: Forty Years among the Mormons
A collection of essays by Jan Shipps giving her reflections on 40 years as a sympathetic scholar of Mormonism.
Pub Note • Intro • Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3
Prince & Wright: David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism
Winner of MHA's 2006 Turner-Bergera award for Best Biography. Surprising new perspectives on many of the key events of the McKay era and the decade following. A must read for any Church history buff.
Intro • Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3
Hardy: Solemn Covenant
The classic treatment of post-Manifesto LDS polygamy.
Pub Note • Part 1
"God Has Made Us a Kingdom"
James Strang & the Midwest Mormons.
Pub Note • My Post • Sidenote
Proving Contraries
A collection honoring Eugene England.
Pub Note • Part 1 • Part 2
Bushman: JS: Rough Stone Rolling
Get to know your Prophet.
T&S Posts • 12Q • M* Intvw • CT Rvw
My Posts 1 • 2 • 3
Adventures of a Church Historian
An insider's view of Church history.
My Review
Bradley: Pedestals And Podiums
LDS women and the ERA.
Pub Note • Offsite Review
The Mysteries of Godliness: A History of Mormon Temple Worship
Pleasantly informative.
Pub Note • Excerpt • My Review
OSC: The Folk of the Fringe
Post-nuke Mormons rock. My Review
Quorum of the Anointed, 1842-1845
A detailed documentary history.
Pub Note • My Review
Alexander: Mormonism in Transition
The emergence of the modern Church from 1890 to 1930.
Brigham Young: American Moses
Best bio of Brigham Young.
Intro • Part 1 • 2
God and Country: Politics in Utah
"Outsiders" share their views.
Pub Note • Intro • Part 1 • 2
Barlow: Mormons and the Bible
A quiet classic.
12Qa • 12Qb
Remini: Joseph Smith
Short, objective. Post • Review
Online JS bios: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6
Arrington: The Mormon Experience
Best 1-vol. history of the LDS Church.
Part 1 • 2 • 3 • 4
Givens: By the Hand of Mormon
BoM scholarship in a nutshell.
12Q • Intro • Part 1
An Insider's View of Mormon Origins
A candid if uneven retelling of Mormon history; not for the LDS history newbie.
Pub Note • My Review
Palmer Posts: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5
Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith
Best bio of Mormonism's First Lady.
Intro • Part 1 • 2 • 3 • 4
FMH Posts: 1 • 2
The Real Jesus : The Misguided Quest for the Historical Jesus and the Truth of the Traditional Gospels
Defending the faith side of the "faith versus history" debate. • My Review
Bart Ehrman: The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot
All about the newly discovered gnostic gospel of Judas. • Part 1 • Part 2
Misquoting Jesus : The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why
Textual criticism and the Bible "as far as it is translated correctly."
Pub Note • Backstory • Review
Posts on higher criticism:
Part 1 • Part 2 • Essays
The Literary Guide to the Bible
For a very close reading of the Bible as a received text.
The Old Testament : A Brief Intro
A German scholar's radical statement of the Documentary Hypothesis.
My Review
Friedman: Who Wrote the Bible?
J, E, P, and D did, according to the Documentary Hypothesis.
Friedman: The Disappearance of God
God's retreat from human affairs.
My Review
Making Sense of the Bible
Eight literary types in the Bible.
My Review
M. Borg: The Heart of Christianity
The liberal view of Christianity.
Post 1 • Post 2
The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
A geneticist on theism • Part 1
Owen Gingerich: God's Universe
An astronomer on theism • Review
Cities of God: The Real Story of How Christianity Became an Urban Movement and Conquered Rome
Stark on Christianity • My Post
The Soul of Christianity
Huston Smith on the Great Tradition.
Pub Note • My Review
From Jesus to Christianity:
How Four Generations of Visionaries and Storytellers Created the New Testament and Christian Faith.
Kung: Great Christian Thinkers
Paul to Barth | Part 1
Pagels: Beyond Belief
The fate of the Gospel of Thomas.
Part 1 | Part 2
Bloom: The American Religion
Enter the "post-Christian nation."
Part 1 | Part 2
McGrath: The Twilight of Atheism
The decline of atheism in the postmodern world.
Intro | Part 1
Stark: The Churching of America
Churches stagnate, "sects" grow.
Part 1
Holifield: Theology in America
How Calvinism became Arminian.
Olson: The Story of Christian Theology
Theology for the rest of us.
Armstrong: The Battle for God
Fundamentalism in modern society.
Fundamentalism 1 | 2
Butler: Religion in American Life
New Social History perspective.
Stein: Communities of Dissent
Mormonism as an "outsider" sect.
Concise History of the Catholic Church
Update of Bokenkotter's classic text.
Jared Farmer: On Zion's Mount: Mormons, Indians, and the American Landscape
A revealing history of Utah Valley and Mormon-Indian relations.
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