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Practical Apologetics: Historicity

Over the holidays I borrowed a copy of Historicity and the Latter-day Saint Scriptures (BYU Religious Studies Center, 2001). Turns out the full book is available online at the RSC site. The book features articles by the usual cast of religion profs and scholarly apologists, plus an apostle and a philosopher. Given how central the historicity issue has become of late (as evident in the Book of Abraham essay, for example) this seems like a good topic for my occasional series on practical apologetics. At the risk of oversimplifying a bit, I am going to suggest that LDS writers who address historicity take one of two approaches, which I will label "no middle ground" and "it's not so simple."

Continue reading "Practical Apologetics: Historicity" »

Jan 23, 2015 at 09:35 AM in LDS Doctrine, My T&S posts, Practical Apologetics | Permalink

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Terryl L. Givens: Feeding the Flock: The Foundations of Mormon Thought: Church and Praxis
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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 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

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 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

General Books 04-05

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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Mormon Books 2015-16

Fresh Courage Take: New Directions by Mormon Women
LDS writers and scholars provide fresh and courageous perspectives on being a Mormon woman in the 21st century. My Review
First Principles and Ordinances: The Fourth Article of Faith in Light of the Temple
Doctor and scholar Sam Brown provides deep and personal reflection on faith, repentance, baptism, and the Holy Ghost.
My Review
Revelation, Resistance, and Mormon Polygamy: The Introduction and Implementation of the Principle, 1830–1853
Merina Smith provides a detailed review of how Joseph Smith developed a wide variety of justifications for the practice of polygamy, which started as part of "secret Nauvoo" and only slowly became part of "public Nauvoo." My Review
Joseph Smith's Polygamy: Toward a Better Understanding
Brian and Laura Hales summarize and defend Joseph Smith's private practice of polygamy. My Review
For the Cause of Righteousness: A Global History of Blacks and Mormonism, 1830-2013
Russell Stevenson surveys the history, plus a hundred pages of annotated source documents.
My Review
Doing the Works of Abraham, Mormon Polygamy: Its Origin, Practice, and Demise
B. Carmon Hardy's extensive collection of source documents related to Mormon polygamy, with introductory explanations.
Post 1 • Post 2 • Post 3

Mormon Books 2013-14

The Council of Fifty: A Documentary History
A review of available documentary sources, giving a fairly complete view of this shadowy Mormon institution and its 19th-century history. My Review
The Mormon Menace: Violence and Anti-Mormonism in the Postbellum South
LDS historian Patrick Mason recounts the challenging Mormon experience in the 19th-century South. My Review
The Mormon Image in the American Mind: Fifty Years of Public Perception
The title says it all. My Post
LDS in the USA: Mormonism and the Making of American Culture
Two non-LDS authors give an excellent short history of Mormonism in popular American culture. My Review
Mormon Christianity: What Other Christians Can Learn From the Latter-day Saints
Stephen H. Webb, a Protestant-turned-Catholic theologian, takes a serious look at Mormon doctrine and theology. Intro • My Review
Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism
Givens and Grow's warts-and-all biography of this energetic missionary, author, and apostle whose LDS career spanned Joseph Smith's life, the emigration to Utah, and Brigham Young's early leadership of the Church in Utah. My Review
Armand L. Mauss: Shifting Borders and a Tattered Passport
The intellectual and spiritual journeys of a Mormon academic. Post 1 • Post 2
Rube Goldberg Machines: Essays in Mormon Theology
Adam Miller tackles Mormon theology.
Post 1 • Post 2 • Post 3

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 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

Bible Books

How to Read the Bible
Harvey Cox gives a short but helpful guide to modern readers of the ancient Bible. My Post
Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth
Bart Ehrman makes it clear that there is no question Jesus of Nazareth existed and that the small but vocal group claiming otherwise has little evidence to support their claim. • My Post
The Last Word: Beyond the Bible Wars to a New Understanding of the Authority of Scripture
Conservative scholar N. T. Wright on the Bible and authority. • My Post
E. P. Sanders: The Historical Figure of Jesus
Jesus the Christ for the 21st century.
Steven L McKenzie: How to Read the Bible: History, Prophecy, Literature
Stressing genre, this Bible scholar shows how modern readers often force biblical writings into modern categories and thereby misconstrue what the biblical writer was trying to say. • My Post
Ancient Israelite Religion
Susan Niditch explores myth, ritual, experience, and ethics in the Hebrew Bible and using surviving archeological artifacts, revealing a surprisingly diverse ancient Israelite religion. • My Post
James M. Robinson: The Gospel of Jesus: In Search of the Original Good News
Trust in God and show compassion for others — that's what Jesus advocated in the Sayings Gospel Q. • My Post
The Bible: A Biography
Karen Armstrong reviews the origin and history of the Bible for the general reader. • My Post
Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium
Bart D. Ehrman's depiction of the historical Jesus as a Jewish apocalyptic prophet. • My Post
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

Mormon Books 2012

Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet
John G. Turner's candid treatment of Brigham Young's life and work.
Post 1 • Post 2 • Post 3 • 4
An Other Testament: On Typology
Joe Spencer digs into how typology is used in the Book of Mormon. My Post
In Heaven as It Is on Earth: Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death
Sam Brown delves into Joseph Smith's doctrines of sealing and salvation as means to overcome the downside of death. My Review
Reeve and Parshall: Mormonism: A Historical Encyclopedia
A very helpful overview of LDS historical topics. A reference work that can be profitably read from cover to cover. My Review
The Book of Mormon Girl
Joanna Brooks tells her stories from an American faith. My Review
A Different Jesus?: The Christ of the Latter-day Saints
Another Bob Millet interfaith special, this time on LDS Christology, with a foreward and afterword by Richard J. Mouw. My Post

Mormon Books 2009-11

Robert L. Millet: LDS Beliefs: A Doctrinal Reference
It's the new improved Mormon Doctrine: not quite as zingy but no bitter aftertaste. My Review
Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader's Guide
Grant Hardy's close literary reading of the Book of Mormon.
My Review • 12Qa • 12Qb
Revisiting Thomas F. O'Dea's The Mormons: Contemporary Perspectives
Fifteen essays revisiting O'Dea's 1957 classic with the benefit of 50 years of Mormon Studies scholarship.
Contemporary Mormonism: Social Science Perspectives
Not just LDS history — these social scientists construct models and test them with real data.
Post 1 • Post 2
All Abraham's Children
Armand Mauss examines changing Mormon conceptions of race and lineage from 1830 to the present. • My Post
Joseph Smith, Jr.: Reappraisals After Two Centuries
A fine collection of essays including contributions by Bushman, Givens, and others.
Part 1 • Part 2
Glen M. Leonard: Nauvoo: A Place of Peace, a People of Promise
The rise and fall of Nauvoo, 1839-1846.
Post 1 • Post 2 • Post 3
The Book of Mormon: A Very Short Introduction
Terryl Givens' scholarly but readable introduction. A fine gift for any student of the Book of Mormon. • My Review
Mormonism: A Very Short Introduction
Richard Bushman's short survey of LDS history and beliefs.
Post 1 • Post 2 • Post 3 • Post 4
Blomberg & Robinson: How Wide the Divide?: A Mormon & an Evangelical in Conversation
The classic book on LDS-Evangelical interfaith dialogue. | Post 1 • Post 2

Mormon Books 2008

Contemporary Mormonism: Latter-day Saints in Modern America
Claudia Bushman's fact-filled survey of the culture and practices of the modern LDS Church and its membership.
Steven C. Harper: Making Sense of the Doctrine & Covenants: A Guided Tour Through Modern Revelations
An excellent one-volume section-by-section survey and commentary on the D&C.
Pub Note • BCC post • 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
Jared Farmer: On Zion's Mount: Mormons, Indians, and the American Landscape
A revealing history of the settlement of Utah Valley and Mormon-Indian relations.
Pub Note • JI-1 • JI-2 • My Rvw
Walker, Turley, & Leonard: Massacre at Mountain Meadows
This long-awaited book gives the definitive account of the events leading up to the occurrence at Mountain Meadows.
Pub Note • BCC Review • Post 1

Mormon Books 2007

Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith
Nibley's daughter takes swipes at BYU, Utah, Mormons, and her family, while creating pages of dialogue out of thin air and a caricature of LDS history. No footnotes, no index, no credibility.
Notes and Links • Rebuttal
O. Kendall White: Mormon neo-orthodoxy: A crisis theology
A controversial examination of a move within Mormonism away from liberal views toward neo-orthodox views: the absolute sovereignty of God, human depravity, and salvation by grace. This text of this book is available online.
Post 1 • Post 2 • Post 3
Offsite notes
Claudia L. Bushman: Building the Kingdom: A History of Mormons in America
Claudia and Richard Bushman's fine short history of the LDS Church.
Pub Note • Post
Eric Eliason: 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
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
A Mormon in the White House?
Hugh Hewitt's political biography of Mitt Romney. • Post
Armand L. Mauss: 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

Mormon Books 2006

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

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
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.
The Prophet Puzzle
A collection of 15 interpretive essays on Joseph Smith.
Pub Note • Part 1 • Part 2
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
Marvin Hill: Quest for Refuge
• Online book! • The Mormon flight from American pluralism and the failed quest for a Mormon Kingdom.
My Review

Religion Books 09-12

Garry Wills: Head and Heart: American Christianities
Puritans, Deists, and Evangelicals battle for American hearts and minds. My Post
Christianity: A Very Short Introduction
An enlightening little book, with emphasis on understanding what is happening in modern Christianity.
Post 1 • Post 2
The Language God Talks: On Science and Religion
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.
Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church
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.
My Review
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.
Post 1 • Post 2 • Post 3
Martin Marty: The Christian World: A Global History
An insighful continent-by-continent history by a superb scholar of Christianity.
My Review
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."