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Volume 30, No. 4

Winter 1997

The Winter 1997 Issue presents varied perspectives on Christian and Mormon themes, focusing on historical, theological, and interpretive issues. John P. Meier begins with an exploration of Jesus in the New Testament, specifically addressing the concept of the "historical Jesus" and what lies behind the Gospel narratives. Track Lamb-Kwon reflects on themes of motherhood, while Edwin B. Firmage examines the psychological and cultural process of viewing strangers as adversaries. Evan Stephenson discusses C.S. Lewis's writings in the context of Mormon beliefs, particularly considering Lewis's influence on Mormon thought. Robert D. Anderson delves into the challenges faced by "Mormon rationalists," those who seek a balance between reason and faith, and Allen D. Roberts offers a response that further probes this intellectual tension. In scriptural studies, Kevin L. Barney analyzes Joseph Smith's emendation of the Hebrew text in Genesis 1:1, providing insight into the Prophet’s interpretive approach to biblical texts.

  • Topics
  • Joseph Smith, history, music

Contents

Articles/Essays

Jesus Christ in the New Testament: Part One: The Historical Jesus behind the Gospels



The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews sums up his Christian faith with the memorable cry (13:8): “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever!” The “yesterday” and “today” of this cry express well both the strong point and the problem of Christian faith. For Christian faith is nothing if not a historical faith. It is inevitably anchored in the historical life and death of one particular Jew of the first century A.D., and yet the meaning of that life and that death has been reinterpreted countless times down through the centuries. The yesterday and the today of Christian faith must always stand in a certain tension or dialectic. 



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Musings on Motherhood



Motherhood is both more glorious and more difficult than I could have known when I was playing with dolls, pretending to be a mama. The reality of motherhood was beyond me until I became a…



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Seeing the Stranger as Enemy: Coming Out



It’s not easy to motivate two thousand people, about evenly divided among high school students, young parents, and older citizens, to march a mile up a steep hill to listen to speakers on an unseasonably beautiful winter day. But Utah’s state legislators had been up to the task. With language so raw, so full of homophobic hatred, they had called these young citizens, our own children, bestial and subhuman.



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The Dilemma of the Mormon Rationalist



In the decline of Christianity over the past 900 years, no incident has so symbolized the struggle between faith and rationality as has the trial of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). With his development of the telescope and discovery of the moonlike phases of Venus, he concluded that the sun was the center of the universe and challenged a literal interpretation of the Bible.



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Fiction

Pioneers



My wife, Freida, could have worked for Cecil B. DeMille or Steven Spielberg, given her cast-of-thousands knack for the spectacular. Take to night, for instance. In the name of fellowshipping, and to beef up our…



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Old Man



Once, when I was twenty-one and fretting about my future, my aunt said, “Why, you have the world by the tail! You can have anything you want!”  Today I feel that I have the world…



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Waters of Mormon



When she went down into those Mormon waters, she must have been eighty years old. No one exactly knew, but it’d been a lot of years, at least sixty, her daughter thought, from that other…



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Letters to the Editor

Poetry

Reviews