In a recently published book ‘Between the Lines: Unlocking Scripture with Timeless Principles’ (2009), Joseph Fielding McConkie tries to deal with the issue of discerning …
Mormon Myths as Transferable Charisma
Richard Bushman has recently given a presentation on ‘Joseph Smith and the Routinization of Charisma’. One of Bushman’s arguments seems to be that Charisma was …
A Marital Confession
A recent visit at FMH and John Dehlin’s Mormon Stories interview with fmhLisa (Butterworth) has made me realise something about myself that I am not …
Prophets, Seers and Bureaucrats
I listened recently to a Mormon Expression podcast with John Dehlin, in which he comments upon the difficult position the Church leaders face. He observes that their are …
Memorialising the Holocaust: Post-memory and the Latter-Day Saints
According to Arrington and Bitton, “most individual responses of modern Mormons involve a kind of tie with the past”[1] . History is central to the …
Bad, Worse and Worst
I would like to use Genesis 12 (and an interesting post by Aaron B from BCC) to examine the inverse of Elder Oak’s famous talk …
Self-Esteem and Sexuality: Another approach to Chastity
I want to take a lead from Hawgrrrl, who recently posted on the value of Sex Education in trying to reduce the rate of unwanted pregnancies …
‘God is not an enemy of Human Appetite’: The Church, the Lord and the M-Word
Disclaimer: This post, as you might expect, does contain some overtly sexual references to specific parts of the body that are prominent in human sexuality. …
The Sacred Made Real: Mormonism, Iconography and the Passion of Christ
A few weeks ago I attended an exhibition entitled ‘The Sacred made Real’ at the National Gallery in London. The collection was focussed on Spanish …
Church Growth and the Tendency toward Liberalism
Some time ago, as a guest I wrote a post entitled ‘Academic freedom in the Church‘ which tried to explore some of liberalizing tendencies seen …
Committing Spiritual Murder: Analysing Alma 39
Michael Ash in a Sunstone article entitled ‘The Sin “Next to Murder”’ has argued that Alma’s exhortation to his son Corianton (who had ran off …
On Failed Patriarchal Blessings
Some time ago I spoke to someone I knew about a Patriarchal blessing they had received which seemed to have failed to come to pass. …
On Being an Apostle but not in the Quorum
‘In 1866, at the age of only twenty-seven, Joseph F. Smith was ordained an Apostle by President Brigham Young, and served briefly as one of …
Dialogue Subscribers and Book of Mormon Historicity?
In 2005 Dialogue conducted research among it’s subscribers. There was over a 1,000 responses which (assuming that everyone answered every question) is a fairly good …
Richard Dawkins, God and Santa Claus: Belief as a Form of Abuse
Between Christmas and New Year I had the opportunity to meet with some friends and at one point during the evening we began discussing the …
The Word of Wisdom and the Temple: Personal, Political and Prophetic Dimensions
Obedience to the Word of Wisdom, it is commonly known, was not always a requirement for entering the Temple or advancement in the Priesthood. What …
Gregory House and Emmanuel Levinas: Finding Meaning in Suffering: Part 2
A few weeks ago I wrote a post on suffering. Resulting from a thoughtful critique of that post, by Andrew S, and a recommendation (in …
‘Christmas’ or ‘Winter Festival’: I’m not sure I care!
This must be the the third year that I have heard people bemoan government plans to change the name of Christmas to ‘Winter Festival’ or some …
Have you ever received a Christmas card from the First Presidency?
This year I received a Christmas card from the First Presidency. I have heard that Church employees get one, but it has not been my …
Really Elder McConkie? You think Education is Worship!
From an outsiders perspective, Mormon worship services may be perceived as lacking actual worship. We spend two and a half of our three hours in classes …
Anish Kapoor on Spirituality
On the BBC, there is a great series of Art documentaries entitled ‘Imagine’. Alan Yentob, a Television Executive, presents them and in the most recent, …
A British Thanksgiving (on the Down-Low)
This is kind-of an impromptu post and so I hope you can forgive the intrusion. But, I love Thanksgiving.
Finding Meaning in Suffering: Part 1
Two of the writers I have come to admire most over the last year have both said that they do not believe all suffering is …
A Bloggernacle Church Handbook of Instruction
Just recently I was re-reading an essay by Eugene England entitled ‘On Finding Truth and God’. It has been something that has helped me deal …
Levi Savage, William Kimball and the Mystery of Redemption
At the outset I should state that I do not think this is a very good title, but it is the only thing I could …
Secular Learning and ‘Correlation’
In a 1926 Improvement Era the M.I.A. reading course included four books: ‘The Book of Mormon, 50c; by mail, 60c. Prophecies of Joseph Smith and …
De-centralising the Spirit: Between Charisma and Bureaucracy
In a lecture entitled ‘A Historian’s Perspective on Joseph Smith’, Richard Bushman shows an interesting trend in religious cultures that surrounded Joseph Smith. This trend centers …
Egon Friedell and the Christian ‘Bad Conscience’
This photograph was taken by Sebastiao Salgado at a gold mine in Brazil. I first saw it in a room at the University I attend. As …
Approaching Isaiah 58: Fasting as a Spiritual Practice
Sometime ago Jana Reiss wrote a column for Sunstone entitled ‘Mormonism as Praxis’[1] in which the writers attempted to explore what Mormonism means in terms …
Common Consent: Democracy or Prophetocracy?
At 10:00am on a brisk August morning in 1844 Sidney Rigdon addressed the Saints. Brigham Young spoke briefly before the break and at length in the …
In Praise of Elder Packer: ‘Let Them Govern Themselves’
It might just be the posts that I read, but Boyd K. Packer is not the most popular of Apostles in the Bloggernacle (or perhaps …
‘I really think it would be best if you ended your remarks at this point?’
John Remy posted an interesting blog/video where a man, speaking about his concern with the Church’s practice and policy during the Prop 8 debate, was …
On Agency and Accountability: An Inter-dependent View
Jeff Spector wrote a post on Agency a few months ago which I enjoyed alot. The discussion led me down a slightly different path and I …
Have you read the Sealed Portion of the Book of Mormon Yet?
Christopher Nemelka has published the sealed portion of the Book or Mormon and has also translated the 116 pages of missing manuscript. His website can …
‘A Sacred Silence’: Blake Ostler on the Heavenly Mother
In a Sunstone presentation entitled ‘A Return to Logic’, which discusses Blake Ostler’s work, he was asked about the Heavenly Mother. As a fan of …
The Grand Council in Heaven: Re-interpreting an Archetype
As a fan of Mormon Studies I value the opportunity to discuss and, sometimes, disagree. In this regard, I have been particularly inspired by the …
The New CES Book of Mormon Institute Manual: Part 2
The Church have just published (although I wrote this from a draft that I had access to before it was published) the new CES Book …
The New CES Book of Mormon Institute Manual: Part 1
The Church are in the process of publishing an updated version of the Book of Mormon Institute Manual for CES classes. (They seem to be pretty …
Highway 61 Re-revisited: Fear and Trembling before Faith
Oh God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son” Abe says, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on” God say, “No.” Abe say, “What?” God …
A Problem in Understanding Celestial Sexuality
Disclaimer: This may be offensive to some people. I will talk about hetero and homosexuality in relation to understanding a ‘celestial sexuality’ and whether one …
The Institutionally Unforgivable?
The message of the Gospel of Christ could be encapsulated in a few adjectives, such as: love (Charity), repentance, forgiveness and service. But how should …
Alexander Doniphan and the Limits of Dissent
The Story of Alexander Doniphan is well-known and probably does not need to be recounted here (For more information see Mormon Heretics Post – A …
‘The only Power to Punish the Church has ever had’?
Hugh Nibley once said “Excommunication… [is] the only power to punish the Church has ever had”. Yet, what is the nature of this punishment and why does it need to be used at all? How does excommunicating someone fit with Christ’s message to seek out the lost sheep and carry them back?
Poly-What?, or, a Contemporary View of LDS Plural Marriage
Being from England, we do not really have a Polygamous Pioneer heritage like some from the US. However, we do have something a little more contemporary. I was speaking recently to a single woman who had a few children and had divorced been for some time and as we were speaking about the Church’s history in this area she explained to me a few of her recent experiences with people who wanted to practice Polygamy.
The Word made Flesh: Poetry, Spirituality and Scripture
I find some poetry immensely moving and even spiritually satisfying. Even though I am not ‘well read’ I still sense that there is a vast reservoir of literature that could provide other channels of communication with God. For me poetry has been one of those channels, especially when it comes to considering my fear of death, I have found it helpful and liberating (check out ‘Aubade’ by Philip Larkin). In addition I have discovered a changing relationship with God through poetry.