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.
Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader's Guide
Grant Hardy's close literary reading of the Book of Mormon. My Review • 12Qa • 12Qb
All Abraham's Children
Armand Mauss examines changing Mormon conceptions of race and lineage from 1830 to the present.
My Post
Terryl 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 intvw
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
Gregory 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 3
Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling
Richard Bushman's biography of Mormonism's founder. • T&S Posts • 12Q
My Posts 1 • 2 • 3
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 3
What Saint Paul Really Said
Conservative Anglican scholar N. T. Wright corrects prevalent misunderstandings of Paul under four topics: history, theology, exegesis, application. • My post
E. P. Sanders: Paul: A Very Short Introduction
Nice review of current scholarship on Paul, his Jewish context, and his teachings. • My post
Christianity: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
An enlightening little book, with emphasis on understanding what is happening in modern Christianity.
Post 1 • Post 2
God 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 2
American 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 2
David 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
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 Review
The 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 2
Karl 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 Post
Michael 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 3
The 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 2
John Polkinghorne: Exploring Reality: The Intertwining of Science and Religion
A scientist-theologian looks at physics, human nature, ethics, and evil. • My Post
John Polkinghorne: Belief in God in an Age of Science
How does God act in a world governed by natural laws? • My Post
Six 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 Post
Francis S. Collins: The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
A geneticist on theism. • My Post
Owen Gingerich: God's Universe
An astronomer on theism. • My Review
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 Post
America's Three Regimes: A New Political History
We're in the populist-bureaucratic regime, hopefully not a precursor to systemic breakdown and anarchy. • My Post
A 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 Post
Victor Hanson: Ripples of Battle
How wars of the past still determine how we fight, how we live, and how we think. • My Post
Edward Abbey: Desert Solitaire
An early prophet of environ-mentalism muses on the beguiling landscapes of the arid West. • My Post
Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy
How the problem of evil framed the project of modern philosophy. • My Review
After Theory
Terry Eagleton on whatever it is that comes after postmodernism.
My Post
Experiments in Ethics
A moral philosopher's surprisingly entertaining critique of traditional philosophical ethics using modern experimental data. • My post
The 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 post
Damon Linker: The Theocons: Secular America Under Siege
All about the vast right-wing religious conspiracy, by a former conspirator. • My post
Daniel K. Richter: Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America
A terribly good book.
Pub Note • My Review
Niall 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 Review
Simon 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 Review
Karen Armstrong: A Short History of Myth
Outlines the modern predicament: too many facts, no compelling myths to live by. • Post 1
Civilization: A New History of the Western World
Better than 300. • Post
The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries That Defined America
Companion volume to the PBS series.
My Review
The American West: A New Interpretive History
A modern perspective.
Part 1 • Part 2
American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation
200 years of public religion.
My Review
Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times
Marathon, Thermopylae, and all that.
My Review
Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists and the Ecology of New England
Property law conquers New England.
My Review
A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War
Outstanding! • My Review
A Nation Among Nations: America's Place in World History
Mind-expanding. • My Review
Storm from the East: The Struggle Between the Arab World and the Christian West
A guide for the perplexed.
Pub Note • Part 1 • Part 2
The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy
One book to rule them all.
The Full Series • Post 1 • Post 2
1491 : New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
Up-to-date survey. My Review
The Basics of Western Philosophy
Fine topical intro. Review
Evolutionary Psychology
A new paradigm? Review
The Sociopath Next Door
Meet Joe Black. Review
The Cruise of the Snark
At sea with Jack London. Review
Dershowitz: America on Trial
Great trials in US history.
Intro | Part 1
Refuge : An Unnatural History of Family and Place
Utah's land and people. Review
Hill: The Salem Witch Trials
A sobering account. Intro | 1 | 2
Witches: 1 | 2 | 3
Blackburn: Think: A Compelling Intro to Philosophy
It will make you think. Part 1
Himmelfarb: The Roads to Modernity
The neglected British Enlightenment.
Part 1
Shippey: The Road to Middle-Earth
The greatest story ever told.
Part 1
A Very Brief History of Philosophy
Reason and Truth in 128 pages.
Part 1
A Short History of Modern Philosophy
Scruton's fine intro to philosophy.
Beowulf: Trans. by Seamus Heaney
Never sounded better.Part 1
How to Read Literature Like a Professor
Help for the metaphorically impaired.
Solomon: What Nietzsche Really Said
And he said it so well. Part 1
McGinn: The Making of a Philosopher
His intellectual journey. Part 1
Sebastian Junger: The Perfect Storm
Men at sea facing the end. And we're all at sea, really. Part 1
Faking It
Ethics, honesty, and the ironic pose.
Part 1 | Part 2
Literary Theory: A Very Short Intro
Crisp introduction to literary theory.
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