It’s hard for us, as humans, to pry apart the empirical from the normative—and for good reasons. Facts don’t come to us bare of value. Especially with regard to those facts that we appreciate and evaluate in existential contexts (i.e., contexts related to our identity and overall worldview), they always already appear normatively laden (i.e., as meaning something). At least as a pragmatic matter, bare facts are secondary abstractions (whatever metaphysical status we ultimately attribute to them). Nephi certainly saw Laman & Co. as acting in ways that had specific meaning and bearing, and I’m convinced that he saw his written record as likewise bearing an unavoidable upshot (this gets noted briefly in chapter 6 and becomes abundantly clear when we get to II Nephi 25). Similarly, we (all) do the same thing when we read commentary on the scriptures. Textual artifacts don’t simply get picked out—rather, the ways in which we pick combines with the social context in which we’re picking, and the picked artifacts’ display already has meaning (however neutral the language doing the displaying). In a public context like Times and Seasons, there are different, sometimes competing contexts, approaches to, and projects with regard to the scriptures. Consequently, a narrative that is candid about textual details is inevitably going to appear at least somewhat differently to different readers. [FN 1] For example, it’s an empirical fact of the text that Nephi only discusses Laman & Co. in…
Category: News and Politics
Politics – Current Events – Media
Mysteries of a Diachronic Narrative – Reading Nephi – 16:26-32
Why did everyone tremble when they looked on the Liahona?
Future Mormon 5: The God Who Weeps
Welcome to the fifth chapter of the originally weekly reading club for Adam Miller’s Future Mormon. For general links related to the book along with links for all the chapter discussions please go to our overview page. Please don’t hesitate to give your thoughts on the chapter. We’re hoping for a good thoroughgoing critical engagement with the text. Such criticisms aren’t treating the text as bad or flawed so much as trying to engage with the ideas Adam brings up. Hopefully people will push back on such criticism if they disagree or even just see flaws in the logic. That’s when we tend to all learn the most. My apologies for the delay on this chapter. Future Mormon Chapter 5: The God Who Weeps Weeps is invigorating precisely because it does not mime the voice of authority. It speaks and thinks in its own name.
Faithful vs. Secular Murmuring – Reading Nephi – 16:17-25
I can’t help but picture the women pregnant, nearing full-term. Nephi rarely mentions the women or their condition, but this strikes me as likely, almost a certainty; particularly when considering Sariah’s age.
The Danger of Theology
Over at his blog, Tarik LaCour has an interesting post on Mormon theology. The actual focus is a review of the book Mormon Christianity: What Other Christians Can Learn From the Latter-day Saints. In the process of the review he mentions how Mormon theology is underdeveloped. I think that’s true, but I’m not sure a systematic theology such as our friends in mainstream Christianity have, is necessarily a good model. Allow me to quote Tarik:
Wilderness Starvation – Reading Nephi – 16:12-17
Food is a huge issue for Nephi. I’m tempted to add up the verses that account for the eight years between the Valley of Lemuel and Bountiful and divide them by the number of verses speaking about food. Quantitatively and qualitatively, this is the issue—in a way that it isn’t and really could never be for most of us.
Changes to the Mission Programs
There’s been quite an uproar the past day or so over announced changes to the missionary program. First up was the Deseret News story, “LDS Church plans to decrease missions; utilize tech savviness to locate religious-minded people.” Added in were more restrictions via interview questions regarding going on a mission. This includes asking more about not only what we’d call mental illness but things like ADHD or Asperger’s Syndrome. We’ve noted here before some of the issues related to the age change of missionaries. These changes definitely show that the Church is rethinking how to do missionary work. That’s a good thing. Whether these particular changes will work out isn’t entirely clear.
Exodus in Earnest – Reading Nephi – 16:9-11
Would we have the Book of Mormon if Lehi had not ignored Jeremiah’s jeremiad and embraced his dreams? Even so, can you imagine—honestly—forsaking your home and property, putting your wife and children (and grandchildren?) in significant jeopardy over a dream?
Onward, Mormon Soldier
Usually I reveal my ignorance gradually over the course of a blog post, perhaps saving the big reveal for the end. This time I’ll get it out of the way up front. I know how spiritual growth and progress toward engagement with the church at an adult level works in lives more or less like my own: high school graduation and transition to elders quorum or Relief Society, starting college and going on a mission (in roughly that order), finishing college and getting married (in roughly that order), and starting a career and accepting adult church callings. What I don’t understand well, despite a need to do so, is how typical milestones of spiritual growth fit into the lives of those who opt for military service.
Marriage as Pivot Point – Reading Nephi – 16:7-8
There are times when the androcentric nature of the Book of Mormon is stark and unavoidable. These verses are rough.
Some Brief Thoughts On Columbus Day
To me Columbus Day is always really Thanksgiving given where I grew up. The harvest there was quite a bit earlier than in the states. By making it Thanksgiving rather than Columbus Day, Canada largely avoids all the political debate that rages in the United States. As I’ve read the stories about vandalism of Columbus statues along with defenses and attacks on the holiday, I had a few brief thoughts.
Call for Applicants: The Fifth Annual Summer Seminar on Mormon Theology
“Are We Not All Beggars? Reading Mosiah 4” Cittadella Ospitalità, Assisi, Italy June 17–June 30, 2018 Sponsored by the Mormon Theology Seminar in partnership with The Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies, The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, and the Wheatley Institution In the summer of 2018, the Mormon Theology Seminar, in partnership with the Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies, the Neal A. Maxwell Institute at Brigham Young University, and the Wheatley Institution at Brigham Young University, will sponsor a summer seminar for graduate students and faculty devoted to reading Mosiah 4. The seminar will be hosted by the Cittadella Ospitalità in Assisi, Italy, from June 17 through June 30, 2018. Travel arrangements, housing, and a $1,000 stipend will be provided for admitted participants. The seminar will be led by Adam Miller and Joseph Spencer, directors of the Mormon Theology Seminar. ABOUT THE SEMINAR This fifth annual summer seminar will again adapt the Mormon Theology Seminar’s practice of facilitating intense, exploratory, interdisciplinary, and collaborative readings of Mormon scripture for a live two-week format. During the first week, the seminar will meet daily to work word-by-word through the text of Mosiah 4:4-25 from a variety of disciplinary perspectives (philosophical, historical, literary, anthropological, rhetorical, political, archeological, sociological, etc.) in order to promote theologically rich readings of the text. The second week will workshop conference papers and a joint-report based on the previous week’s collaboration…
Different Hardnesses to the Truth – Reading Nephi – 16:1-6
My typical reaction in reading this vision (or, as more often is the case, segments of the vision) and Nephi’s sermonizing and exhortations is to rejoice. This confrontation Nephi has with Laman (et al) pulls me up short, though.
Housework, resentment, and power, in a different light
For a period of my marriage I harbored resentment toward my husband, unfailingly gentle and hard-working, over questions of housework. It was all utterly typical. I felt my work was unappreciated and invisible to him. I felt I was left with more than my share of the work generated by the kids and the household. I felt resentful that he resented me when I got grumpy. There was little outward conflict between us–chilly silence is more my speed–but I would allow aggrieved accusations to play on repeat in my head as I stomped through my chores. Observing recent conversations, I’ve realized that I don’t carry that kind of resentment anymore. The exhausting work of caring for small children has ended for me; no doubt that’s part of the change. But the mental load and time demands of a larger home and busier household remain on my plate. I think I’ve come to see myself, my work and my relationship differently over the past few years, and those changes have contributed to my present composure on these matters (though new challenges always arise in family life). For me, the most generative ideas have not been about gender roles and sexual politics, but about how I understand myself, my desire, my agency, and my husband’s agency. Caveat: my experience is far from universal. I’m lead parent of our four kids, while my husband is lead breadwinner. I work at home as an…
The Filthy Waters of Life – Reading Nephi – 15:21-36 part II
Three more quick points: first, the tree is no longer merely metaphorically or symbolically, but now explicitly made to be the Tree of Life.
Book Review: That We May Be One: A Gay Mormon’s Perspective On Faith and Family
When I was in college, in the early 90s, a friend commented that she wished that gays were better treated in church. Another friend asked what that might look like. She responded that she hoped we’d come to a point where someone could say to a ward member, “Please stop trying to set me up with your daughter—I’m gay,” and that that person would still be welcomed in the ward.
Early Christian Intellectuals Were Bored At Church Too
So last week I read The Swerve: How the World Became Modern. It was definitely an interesting book, and one tangent stuck out to me in particular. Here’s author Stephen Greenblatt describing Saint Jerome’s travails with setting aside his addiction to pagan art to try and focus on scripture: But a prestigious cultural tradition that has shaped the inner lives of the elite does not disappear easily, even in those who welcome its burial. In a letter written in 384 CE, Jerome–the scholarly saint to whom we owe the story of Lucretius’ madness and suicide–described an inner struggle. Ten years earlier, he recalled, he was on his way from Rome to Jerusalem, where he planned to withdraw from all worldly entanglements, but still he took his prized classical library with him. He was committed to disciplining his body and savings his soul, but he could not forgo the addictive pleasures of his mind: “I would fast, only to read Cicero afterwards. I would spend many nights in vigil, I would shed bitter tears called from my inmost heart by the remembrance of my past sins; and then I would take up Plautus again.” Cicero, Jerome understood, was a pagan who argued for a thoroughgoing skepticism toward all dogmatic claims, including the claims of religion, but the elegance of his prose seemed irresistible. Plautus was, if anything, worse: his comedies were populated by pimps, whores, and hangers-on, but their zany wit…
Follow the Prophet to Jesus: A Sharing Time or Family Home Evening Lesson Plan
This summer, I spent memorable hours in conversation with friends about our discourse of prophets and prophecy in the Church. So many of us have witnessed disillusionment and anguish when friends lose trust in church leadership. Often, a covert message of prophetic infallibility has been conveyed in childhood church experiences, a belief that inevitably crumbles later and erodes faith with it. We asked ourselves, “How do we talk about prophets in a way that provides a sustainable basis for mature faith?” In discussion with friends, I decided that a minor adaptation of a familiar phrase–“Follow the Prophet” becomes “Follow the Prophet to Jesus”–implicitly conveys most of our intent. In particular, I wanted to emphasize the following points: 1) Prophets need not be infallible to point the way to Jesus; 2) In fact, prophets are better guides because they personally experience the processes of gaining faith, repenting of sins, etc; 3) The prophetic office–a narrowly defined priesthood role–exists in service to the larger prophetic mission of leading souls to Christ, which encompasses believers regardless of sex. General Conference season seems an apt moment to develop the lesson and send it into the wild. Please enjoy, use, freely adapt, and consider sharing if the ideas speak to you. I’m convinced that small, fully faithful tweaks in our discourse about prophets can make a big difference in the resilience of young souls’ attachment to the Church. Attention Activity: Younger Children: Sing the Primary song…
Nephi as King and Nephi as Brother – Reading Nephi – 15:21-36 part I
I … see two differenet Nephi’s in this passage, and I’m not sure which is more accurate.
A New (and Everlasting) Covenant – Reading Nephi – 15:12-20
I suspect that his brothers’ lack of understanding had less to do with their inability to grasp our simplistic Sunday School summary of the allegory of the olive tree, and much more to do with how culturally and theologically “other” this picture was compared to their own understanding.
Theorizing the Restoration in the Sixteenth Century
I’ve written before about Sebastian Franck, a spiritualist who charted his own path through the religious turmoil of the Reformation era. As I was recently reading Franck’s letter to the Anabaptist theologian Johann Campanus, I was struck by how familiar Franck’s discussion of apostasy, authority, and restoration sounded.
Shining Light vs. Secret Charity
There’s been a lot of stories about Church activity in Houston and other places where members have stepped up to help people in the hurricane. You’ve probably seen a lot of stories. I’ve even linked to a lot myself. I’ll admit I’ve always been a bit uncomfortable with these stories though. There’s something a bit unseemly about stories that are us telling ourselves how great a job we’re doing. It’s that sense that if you’re doing charity for praise, you’re doing it wrong. “But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth” (Matt 6:3)
Nephi’s Abrahamic Trial – Reading Nephi – 15:1-11 part II
I think we see here an Abrahamic trial.
PRRI Poll Numbers on Mormons
I love religion polls and surveys. I think they tell us a lot about what has been a rather transformative period in American religion the past 20 years. While I’m still eagerly awaiting the next ARIS survey, PRRI came out with a new religious study to wet our appetite. There actually were a lot of surprises in this poll.
Revelation’s Demand for More Revelation – Reading Nephi – 15:1-11 part I
More contrasts between Nephi and his brothers—although this passage strikes me as less political…and more intimate and personal.
The Hermeneutic of Revelation: There is Always More – Reading Nephi – 14:18-30
The end of the narrative of Nephi’s grand vision is to point beyond the vision and beyond Nephi.
Primary Sharing Time Lesson: All Are Alike unto God
This month’s Primary Sharing Time outline provides two weeks to cover the topic of the Sabbath. Because our presidency covered the topic well last week, I’ve created an alternate Sharing Time lesson plan. Given recent events in the US, I focused the lesson on respect for human difference and universal equality. The lesson draws on scriptures, topics, and techniques included throughout the yearly Sharing Time curriculum, bringing them together into a single lesson to underscore the importance of Christ-like love. The lesson reflects my limited North American perspective in its language, techniques, and assumptions, but I hope Primary presidencies around the world, if they encounter this post, will feel free to transform it for their Primaries. In writing the lesson, I consulted the church’s Sharing Time outline, and the websites shouldertothewheel.org and Blacksinthescriptures.com, as well as this article. By citing these resources, I do not imply personal endorsement of every idea therein, but I found them to be helpful in stimulating my own thoughts. I created separate lesson plans for Junior (ages 3-8) and Senior (ages 8-11) Primary, because older children are generally ready for a more developed treatment of the topic. I hope readers will find these lessons useful in whole or in part, this week or any time they are relevant. I invite further suggestions or variations in the comments. Feel free to share the content in any form or forum. Enjoy! Junior Primary Attention activity: Tell the children…
Future Mormon: Chapter 4
Welcome to the fourth week of the reading club for Adam Miller’s Future Mormon. For general links related to the book along with links for all the chapter discussions please go to our overview page. We’ll be trying to discuss a chapter each week. Please don’t hesitate to give your thoughts on the chapter. We’re hoping for a good thoroughgoing critical engagement with the text. Such criticisms aren’t treating the text as bad or flawed so much as trying to engage with the ideas Adam brings up. Hopefully people will push back on such criticism as that’s when we tend to all learn the most. My apologies for the delay on this chapter. It’s a pretty complicated chapter in certain ways and I’ve been swamped with work and kids starting school. I do think this is a key text in understanding Adam’s theology even though it only opens up certain discussions. It’s also where I start to differ with him in certain strong ways. I should also note that several of the themes in this chapter were the topic of a post by Adam here at Times and Seasons. Particularly in the comments some related ideas get discussed. Future Mormon Chapter 4: Early Onset Postmortality Repentance is only possible if time is complex and the past persists unfinished, kept alive beyond itself by a remnant of time that no amount of pride or sinful pretension to self-possession could smother.
Binaries of the Lamb and the Devil – Reading Nephi – 14:8-17 part II
I feel somewhat affronted by the angel’s adamant declaration and insistence on the binary nature of humanity.
The Evidential Problem of Evil
The problem of evil is a long standing issue in philosophy and theology. More or less it’s the recognition that there is something wrong if God is all loving and all powerful yet we experience all the evils of mortality. Why doesn’t God do something? I think that Mormons are ultimately in a better position here than our non-LDS Christian friends. Yet I think many assume the problem is solved for Mormons whereas I think it is a bit more complicated.