In the middle part of The Lost World of Genesis One, Walton details his theory of the cosmos as God's temple, based on his view of Genesis 1 as an account of functional creation (rather than material creation) and drawing on parallels with other Near Eastern creation accounts. If that idea grabs you, you should read the book. Myself, I know what temples are and I know what the Universe is, and I don't see conflating the two as an advance in my understanding of either. But it is certainly interesting reading.
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December 2011
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Now Reading
Terryl L. Givens: Feeding the Flock: The Foundations of Mormon Thought: Church and Praxis
The second volume in Givens' Foundations of Mormon Thought series on Mormon theology and doctrine.
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Mormonism
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Mormon Books
Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader's Guide
Grant Hardy's close literary reading of the Book of Mormon. My Review • 12Qa • 12QbAll Abraham's Children
Armand Mauss examines changing Mormon conceptions of race and lineage from 1830 to the present.
My PostTerryl L. Givens: People of Paradox: A History of Mormon Culture
The history of LDS architecture, music, dance, theater, literature, cinema, and scholarship in light of four "paradoxes" in Mormon culture: authority vs. autonomy, certainty vs. searching, sacred vs. banal, and election vs. exile.
Post 1 • Pub Note • T&S intvwThe 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 • 12QbGregory A Prince: 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 3Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling
Richard Bushman's biography of Mormonism's founder. • T&S Posts • 12Q
My Posts 1 • 2 • 3
Religion Books
The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate
John H. Walton presents his theory that Creation is God's temple.
Post 1 • Post 2 • Post 3What Saint Paul Really Said
Conservative Anglican scholar N. T. Wright corrects prevalent misunderstandings of Paul under four topics: history, theology, exegesis, application. • My postE. P. Sanders: Paul: A Very Short Introduction
Nice review of current scholarship on Paul, his Jewish context, and his teachings. • My postChristianity: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
An enlightening little book, with emphasis on understanding what is happening in modern Christianity.
Post 1 • Post 2God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World--and Why Their Differences Matter
Stephen Prothero's religions of the world book.
Post 1 • Post 2American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us
A detailed empirical look at what has happened in American religion the last fify years. • Post 1 • Post 2David Ford: Theology: A Very Short Introduction
It's not easy to get started in theology, but this short book should do the trick. | My post
Science Books
Neil Shubin: The Universe Within: Discovering the Common History of Rocks, Planets, and People
A follow-up to Shubin's Your Inner Fish, this time emphasizing the cosmic rather than the terrestrial story of the development of human anatomy. We are star dust.Alone in the Universe: Why Our Planet Is Unique
The prolific astrophysicist and science writer John Gribbin reviews where Earth came from, why it is here, and how it will end (in a rain of cometary chunks from the Oort Cloud in about a million years). Read all about it in my post The Fate of the Earth.The Story of Earth: The First 4.5 Billion Years, from Stardust to Living Planet
Robert M. Hazen gives a geologist's fascinating review of earth history. Magma is a lot more interesting than you thought. In my post Volcanism, Mormonism, and Historical Contingency I note the connection between the stupendous eruption of Tambora in 1815 and the relocation of Joseph Smith's family from Vermont to Palmyra, New York.The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
Working in the EP paradigm, Jonathan Haidt shows there is more to morality than harm and fairness (add liberty, loyalty, authority, and sanctity). My ReviewThe Language of Science and Faith: Straight Answers to Genuine Questions
Karl Giberson and Francis Collins on evolution, the age of the earth, and other faith-science issues.
Post 1 • Post 2Karl Giberson: Saving Darwin: How to Be a Christian and Believe in Evolution
He went to college a fundamentalist Christian and graduated as a Christian (but no longer fundamentalist) physicist.
My PostMichael Ruse: The Evolution-Creation Struggle
A philosopher surveys the origin and history of the clash between scientific and Christian worldviews.
Post 1 • Post 2 • Post 3The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God
Carl Sagan, of Cosmos fame, talks about astronomy and his own views on God and religion. • Post 1 • Post 2John Polkinghorne: Exploring Reality: The Intertwining of Science and Religion
A scientist-theologian looks at physics, human nature, ethics, and evil. • My PostJohn Polkinghorne: Belief in God in an Age of Science
How does God act in a world governed by natural laws? • My PostSix Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief
Biologist Lewis Wolpert investigates how we form our beliefs about the natural world and religion. • My PostFrancis S. Collins: The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
A geneticist on theism. • My PostOwen Gingerich: God's Universe
An astronomer on theism. • My Review
General Books 09-12
The Lost History of 1914: Reconsidering the Year the Great War Began
How the Great War quickly came to overshadow other major events that preceded it. In my post The Lost History of 1844 I suggest the assassination of Joseph Smith in 1844 did much the same thing, albeit on a much smaller scale.All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age
Two noted philosophers use Homer, Dante, Descartes, Kant, and Melville to find meaning in our disenchanted modern world. • My PostAmerica's Three Regimes: A New Political History
We're in the populist-bureaucratic regime, hopefully not a precursor to systemic breakdown and anarchy. • My PostA Brief History of History: Great Historians and the Epic Quest to Explain the Past
Reviews the great historians of the past, including those writing problematic religious and church history. • My PostVictor Hanson: Ripples of Battle
How wars of the past still determine how we fight, how we live, and how we think. • My PostEdward Abbey: Desert Solitaire
An early prophet of environ-mentalism muses on the beguiling landscapes of the arid West. • My PostEvil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy
How the problem of evil framed the project of modern philosophy. • My ReviewAfter Theory
Terry Eagleton on whatever it is that comes after postmodernism.
My PostExperiments in Ethics
A moral philosopher's surprisingly entertaining critique of traditional philosophical ethics using modern experimental data. • My postThe Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart
Is residential self-sorting driving polarized politics and associated changes in society and religion? • My postDamon Linker: The Theocons: Secular America Under Siege
All about the vast right-wing religious conspiracy, by a former conspirator. • My post
General Books 06-08
Daniel K. Richter: Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America
A terribly good book.
Pub Note • My ReviewNiall Ferguson: The War of the World
How the decline of empires and the rise of ethnic conflict defined our violent 20th century.
Pub Note • My ReviewSimon Baron-Cohen: The Essential Difference: Male And Female Brains And The Truth About Autism
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 ReviewKaren Armstrong: A Short History of Myth
Outlines the modern predicament: too many facts, no compelling myths to live by. • Post 1Civilization: A New History of the Western World
Better than 300. • PostThe Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries That Defined America
Companion volume to the PBS series.
My ReviewThe American West: A New Interpretive History
A modern perspective.
Part 1 • Part 2American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation
200 years of public religion.
My ReviewAncient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times
Marathon, Thermopylae, and all that.
My ReviewChanges in the Land: Indians, Colonists and the Ecology of New England
Property law conquers New England.
My ReviewA War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War
Outstanding! • My ReviewA Nation Among Nations: America's Place in World History
Mind-expanding. • My ReviewStorm from the East: The Struggle Between the Arab World and the Christian West
A guide for the perplexed.
Pub Note • Part 1 • Part 2The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy
One book to rule them all.
The Full Series • Post 1 • Post 2
General Books 04-05
1491 : New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
Up-to-date survey. My ReviewThe Basics of Western Philosophy
Fine topical intro. ReviewEvolutionary Psychology
A new paradigm? ReviewThe Sociopath Next Door
Meet Joe Black. ReviewThe Cruise of the Snark
At sea with Jack London. ReviewDershowitz: America on Trial
Great trials in US history.
Intro | Part 1Refuge : An Unnatural History of Family and Place
Utah's land and people. ReviewHill: The Salem Witch Trials
A sobering account. Intro | 1 | 2
Witches: 1 | 2 | 3Blackburn: Think: A Compelling Intro to Philosophy
It will make you think. Part 1Himmelfarb: The Roads to Modernity
The neglected British Enlightenment.
Part 1Shippey: The Road to Middle-Earth
The greatest story ever told.
Part 1A Very Brief History of Philosophy
Reason and Truth in 128 pages.
Part 1A Short History of Modern Philosophy
Scruton's fine intro to philosophy.Beowulf: Trans. by Seamus Heaney
Never sounded better.Part 1How to Read Literature Like a Professor
Help for the metaphorically impaired.Solomon: What Nietzsche Really Said
And he said it so well. Part 1McGinn: The Making of a Philosopher
His intellectual journey. Part 1Sebastian Junger: The Perfect Storm
Men at sea facing the end. And we're all at sea, really. Part 1Faking It
Ethics, honesty, and the ironic pose.
Part 1 | Part 2Literary Theory: A Very Short Intro
Crisp introduction to literary theory.
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