[…] about Mormonism, but within it. And this has been the case from the very start, as several essays demonstrate in a new book called The Persistence of Polygamy. From the shadowy beginnings of the […]
Title: Mormonism at the Crossroads of Philosophy and Theology: Essays in Honor of David L. Paulsen Editor: Jacob T. Baker Publisher: Greg Kofford Books Genre: Philosophy/Theology Year: 2012 Pages: 422 Binding: Softcover ISBN13: 978-1589581920 Price: $31.95 When it comes to academic engagement […]
[…] learn new things when we respond to new questions, and the person who says “I no longer get anything out of my scripture study” no longer runs up against questions to think about as […]
Cross posted at Maxwell Institute Blog by Blair Hodges Common Ground, Different Opinions is a collection of essays written by a variety of Latter-day Saint authors on controversial issues like environmentalism, stem cell research, […]
Cross-posted at By Common Consent by Blair Hodges
Last week, popular Christian evangelist Ravi Zacharias returned to Salt Lake City to address Mormons and other Christians from the Tabernacle pulpit. Back in 2004, Zacharias’s historic Tabernacle address was overshadowed in the news by Richard Mouw’s controversial introductory remarks. Mouw, president of the Fuller Theological Seminary, issued an apology to Mormons on behalf of evangelicals who he said had sinned against Mormonism by misrepresenting their beliefs and practices. Over the past decade, the evangelical (Calvinist) Christian has continued to dialog with various Mormons in order to promote better interfaith relationships. During the last two presidential elections he became one of the many go-to sources for news outlets seeking soundbites on evangelical views of Mormonism. He’s taken a lot of heat for this within his religious community–early on being told that he didn’t know Mormons well enough and so would easily be deceived by them, later being told he had become too close to Mormons to have a clear view of their dangerous heresies.
His new book Talking with Mormons: An Invitation to Evangelicals is an effort to educate the evangelical community about his ongoing work with Mormonism.
Crossposted at By Common Consent
Re-reading Job: Understanding the Ancient World’s Greatest Poem
By Michael Austin, Dialogue Board Member
Greg Kofford Books, 2014
$20.95
Academic approaches to scripture sometimes arouse suspicion in LDS circles, especially when they include the Higher Criticism (“Moses didn’t write the five books of Moses?”) or reading the Bible as literature (“So you think this is a work of fiction?”). People using or advocating these approaches often draw charges of privileging the intellectual ways of the world over the pure spiritual truth of God, of trusting in the arm of flesh, or of kowtowing to secular disbelief in the interest of seeming more acceptable.
Utah Valley University Professor Will Begin Five-Year Term Effective January 1, 2016
SALT LAKE CITY, January 28, 2015 – The Board of Directors of Dialogue Foundation, publisher of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, has selected Dr. Boyd Jay Petersen to serve as the journal’s next editor. Petersen will succeed Kristine Haglund when her term as editor ends December 31, 2015.
Petersen has taught courses in English and religious and Mormon studies at Utah Valley University since 1995, receiving a Faculty Excellence Award in 2006. As Program Coordinator for Mormon Studies, he has organized conferences on Mormonism and Islam, Mormonism and the Internet, Mormonism and Buddhism, and Mormonism and the environment, among other topics. He has also been a lecturer in the honors program at Brigham Young University. He has published articles and essays in Dialogue, Journal of Mormon History, Irreantum, BYU Studies, FARMS Review and Sunstone. The Mormon History Association awarded him the Best Biography Award for Hugh Nibley: A Consecrated Life; his most recent book is Dead Wood and Rushing Water: Essays on Mormon Faith, Politics, and Family. He is currently the book review editor for the Journal of Mormon History.
Commenting on his selection, Petersen said: “Dialogue has demonstrated that spirit and intellect are not two separate parts of the human soul that must be shielded from each other. Rather, deep conversation between the two is the only way for each to be fully expressed. Intelligence broadens faith and faith broadens intelligence. My goal is to continue the strong tradition of editorship that has allowed Dialogue to play that role for many thousands of readers, while serving as a venue for Mormonism to engage with the world’s great ideas and debates.”
Son of the Black Sword: The Saga of the Forgotten Warrior I
Larry Correia
Baen, 2015
Hardcover, 412 pp., $25.00
Reviewed by Michael R. Collings
Larry Correia’s action-adventure novels range from military thrillers to urban fantasies to epic high fantasies, often with accurately detailed depictions of modern and imagined weaponry. His first novel, Monster Hunters International, placed on the Locus bestsellers list; its sequel appeared on the New York Times lists, as have subsequent books. His series include Grimnoir Chronicles, Dead Six (with Mike Kupari), and now The Saga of the Forgotten Warrior. His work in speculative fiction/fantasy is highly regarded, as is the straightforwardness with which he defends his stands on such diverse issues as the role of speculative fiction in society and gun use and gun control.
For readers familiar with Correia’s work only through his Monster Hunters International series, Son of the Black Sword might seem like an established approach to an accustomed pattern. In the first pages, Correia presents his hero, Ashok Vadal, with a monster to be dispatched: a sea-demon threatening to destroy villages along the coast of the continent Lok
Unforgettable
Eric James Stone
Baen, January 2005
Trade paperback, 250pp., #15.00
Reviewed by Michael R. Collings
Eric James Stone is perhaps best known in the science-fiction community for his Nebula-winning, Hugo-nominated story, “That Leviathan Whom Thou Hast Made” (2010), one of fifty published short stories. “Leviathan” demonstrated Stone’s ability to tell a compelling story incorporating an SF theme—alien/human interaction—with equally compelling perspectives on ethics, morality, spirituality, and religion.
His novel, Unforgettable, at first feels more focused on the physical, however, in particular on connections between individuals and the fascinating worlds posited by quantum physics. Nat Morgan is a quantum “freak,” what one character refers to as “Schrödinger’s cat burglar,” who “exists” only as long as people physically see him; precisely one minute after he leaves, they immediately forget him. His mother has forgotten him. Cell phones forget him. ATM computers—indeed all computers—forget him. Worse, his handler at the CIA forgets him, so every time Morgan contacts the agency for an assignment, he must reestablish not only his identity but his existence.
A Cluttering of Symbol and Metaphor
David G. Pace. Dream House on Golan Drive. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2015. 300 pp. Paperback: $24.95.
Reviewed by Eric W. Jepson
How to represent lived religious experience without either underplaying its reality or slipping into the magical-fantastical is an ongoing difficulty in Mormon literature. David G. Pace, in his novel Dream House on Golan Drive, has decided to lean hard into that latter option. The story is narrated by Zedekiah, one of the Three Nephites assigned to watch over young Riley Hartley. What makes Riley special enough to deserve this honor is never clear. Also unclear is just how much of an “honor” it is to have Zedekiah acting as, essentially, his guardian angel.