The 100-Minute Bible

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The 100-Minute Bible

Another edited Bible for your reading pleasure, designed for people on the go with not much time to spare for things spiritual: The 100-Minute Bible. Surprisingly, it is endorsed and published by the stuffy old English, as noted in this article. Here is the Sermon on the Mount in 100-speak. It's condensed, but the vocabulary isn't dumbed down. The omniscient third-person narrative even makes it sound Book-of-Mormonish. Makes me wonder what a 100-Minute Book of Mormon might sound like. Or maybe a 120-Minute Book of Mormon, reminding us it still has all those plain and precious truths that got erased from the Bible.

Nov 19, 2005 at 03:02 PM | Permalink

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General Books 09-12

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Claudia Bushman's fact-filled survey of the culture and practices of the modern LDS Church and its membership.
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An excellent one-volume section-by-section survey and commentary on the D&C.
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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.
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Mormon Books 2007

Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith
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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.
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Mormon Books 2006

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A collection honoring Eugene England.
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Mormon Books 2005

Davies: The Mormon Culture of Salvation
Uses a variety of models to look at LDS doctrine and cultural practice related to death and salvation, with a lengthy consideration of the "world religion" question.
My Post • Pub Note
Bushman: JS: Rough Stone Rolling
Get to know your Prophet.
T&S Posts • 12Q • M* Intvw • CT Rvw
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An insider's view of Church history.
My Review
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Pleasantly informative.
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A detailed documentary history.
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Alexander: Mormonism in Transition
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A collection of 15 interpretive essays on Joseph Smith.
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Best bio of Brigham Young.
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"Outsiders" share their views.
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Barlow: Mormons and the Bible
A quiet classic.
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Short, objective. Post • Review
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Arrington: The Mormon Experience
Best 1-vol. history of the LDS Church.
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Givens: By the Hand of Mormon
BoM scholarship in a nutshell.
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A candid if uneven retelling of Mormon history; not for the LDS history newbie.
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Best bio of Mormonism's First Lady.
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• Online book! • The Mormon flight from American pluralism and the failed quest for a Mormon Kingdom.
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Religion Books 09-12

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An enlightening little book, with emphasis on understanding what is happening in modern Christianity.
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Author Herman Wouk contrasts the scientific and literary modes of apprehending God. • My Post
C David Grant: Thinking Through Our Faith: Theology for 21st Century Christians
A professor of religion opines on tough questions for 21st-century Mormons: historicity, cosmology, evolution, feminism, postmodernism. • My Post
Marilynne Robinson: Absence of Mind: The Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self
A Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist weighs in on science and religion. She favors religion. • My Post
American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us
A detailed empirical look at what has happened in American religion, including Mormonism, over the last fifty years.
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For most American teens, religion is so 20th century. But Mormon teens seem to be bucking the trend. • My Post
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
Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate
Terry Eagleton contra Ditchkins and the New Atheists. | My Post
Nathan O. Hatch: The Democratization of American Christianity
How the raging democratic spirit of early 19th-century America influenced the doctrine and practice of young religious movements such as Methodism and Mormonism. | My Post
God After Darwin: A Theology of Evolution
A theologian explores theology through the lens of evolution. • My Post
William Lobdell: Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America-and Found Unexpected Peace
A long-time LA Times religion reporter unburdens his soul.
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David F. 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

Religion Books 2008

Stephen Prothero: Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know--And Doesn't
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.
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Martin Marty: The Christian World: A Global History
An insighful continent-by-continent history by a superb scholar of Christianity.
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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.
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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."