The Mormon Archipelago

Mormon Robots @ Juvenile Instructor
  -  [Part of the Many Images of Mormonism series.] In the 2012 US presidential campaign...

Southwestern States Mission: July Sick Days @ Juvenile Instructor
  -  One of the reasons I started the Southwestern States Mission series was to motivate...

Fasting For Health @ New Cool Thang
  -  A little more than a month ago I came across a BBC program on the subject of fasting. You...

It’s May, Happy New Year! Or, How I Spend My Summer Vacation @ Juvenile Instructor
  -  Sorry this post isn’t very Mormon-y, but it’s part of my occasional postings...

Mormon Women’s History Tea and Discussion Group – Announcement @ Juvenile Instructor
  -  A year and a half ago, Brittany Chapman and I discussed the need for a space where young...

Don’t Stand So Close to Me: On Not Hearing Elizabeth Smart @ Juvenile Instructor
  -  Please note: This post has been corrected. In earlier versions, the second and third...

New Mormon Women’s History Resource: Mormon Women Scholars’ Network @ Juvenile Instructor
  -  One of the things that still disappoints every time that I look for scholarship on Mormon...

MHA Reminder and Selected Abstracts @ Juvenile Instructor
  -  In a mere 23 days, the Mormon History Association’s meetings will convene in...

Where Do I Come From? What Am I? Where Am I Going?: Exploring Representations of Mormonism to Understand American Religious History @ Juvenile Instructor
  -  In my years in Boston, I have been a frequent visitor at the city’s wonderful Museum of...

Southwestern States Mission: Music through the Year @ Juvenile Instructor
  -  In the past few months I’ve posted on the hymnbook, Mormon hymnody, and the general...

Getting at the Heart of the Female Equality Debate @ New Cool Thang
  -  (Authorial Note: This post looks long, but if you ignore the appendix section, it should...

Where are we going? The Dictionary of Mormon Biography @ Juvenile Instructor
  -  The last few months have been a whirlwind of activity at the Dictionary of Mormon...

Priesthood, Women, and Non-Agency @ Faith-Promoting Rumor
  -  Two anecdotes: 1) Recently our bishop was teaching an Aaronic Priesthood lesson to a...

Boat, Bible; Ship, Scripture @ Faith-Promoting Rumor
  -  *follow-up to this. Three vociferous cheers for Old Joe and his Indian Bible...

The God Debate @ New Cool Thang
  -  Literary theorist Terry Eagleton provides a fascinating criticism of the New Atheist...

Scripture Studies and Theory @ Faith-Promoting Rumor
  -  With the arrival of Salt Press at the Maxwell Institute, we have finally entered an era...

“For He Taught Them as One Having Authority, and not as the Scribes.” @ New Cool Thang
  -  One of the authors which has greatly influenced my present ambivalence toward...

Three (surprising) General Authority Statements on Tolerance (in Conference) @ New Cool Thang
  -  Here is another guest post from NCT regular, DavidF I’m sure most people are sick...

Exploring the Iconic Nature of the Book of Mormon: Part I, Introduction @ Faith-Promoting Rumor
  -  In his recent book The Rise and Fall of the Bible: The Unexpected History of an...

this conference changes everything @ New Cool Thang
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Ancient Inscription Proves Book of Mormon True, Completely Reconfigures Field of Mormon Studies and the Place of Apologetics @ Faith-Promoting Rumor
  -  It is providential that at almost the exact same time that a recently discovered letter...

N.T. Wright on Jesus @ Nine Moons
  -  I took the advice of Henry Eyring yesterday – imagining the talk that I needed and...

A Stranger, A Pilgrim: Liveblogging El Camino @ a bird's eye view
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Breaking the Ivory Ceiling @ Faith-Promoting Rumor
  -  As a LDS studying religion, it’s not uncommon to hear the claim that Mormons have a...

Moral Rightness and the Same Sex Marriage Debate @ New Cool Thang
  -  This guest post was submitted by NCT regular commenter, DavidF Hot off the presses, you...

“Mormon Girl” Joanna Brooks Misfired On This One @ New Cool Thang
  -  I just saw an article by Joanna Brooks titled “I Died Inside”. Here is the...

The impact of progressive change on Mormonism @ New Cool Thang
  -  Change within the church, as within any other organization, can be challenging. This is...

An (Updated) Bible Dictionary? @ Faith-Promoting Rumor
  -  Let me just say upfront that I don’t have a problem in theory with the idea of a Bible...

Tithing And Responsibility @ Nine Moons
  -  A court has ruled that paying back taxes is a higher priority than paying tithing –...

Sam Gamgee and the Relief Society @ Faith-Promoting Rumor
  -  Sam Gamgee and the Relief Society[1] Whenever I watch the film version of the Lord of the...

What’s Wrong with the Topical Guide? @ Faith-Promoting Rumor
  -  Last year I suggested some changes that I would make to the LDS Scriptures, which...

Prophets Don’t All Weigh The Same @ Nine Moons
  -  Mormons like to beat themselves up for not giving enough value to the man they call...

The 2013 Adjustments to the Book of Mormon: Accuracy Delayed @ Faith-Promoting Rumor
  -  This post is written by guest contributor, Grant Hardy. It is a weighty responsibility to...

Academics and the Nature of Truth @ New Cool Thang
  -  Suppose we want to know what the rules of football are – what the nature of football...

Mouths of Babes — Does Can Mean Should? @ a bird's eye view
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When Women Don’t Want The Priesthood @ Nine Moons
  -  Imagine for a moment a Northeastern urban ward. The average age is 32, a large number of...

Brother Husband @ Nine Moons
  -  If the stars align just so, my first novel will be released this summer. Needless to say,...

Prince on the Evolution of Mormon Thought @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  I stumbled across a Greg Prince talk giving a nice overview of Mormon thought in the past...

Turner, Part 4: Brigham's Last Two Decades @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  [Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3] This last post covers Chapters 9 through 13 of John G....

Turner, Part 3: Brigham as Pioneer and Prophet @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  [Part 1 | Part 2] This post covers Chapters 5 through 8 of John G. Turner's Brigham...

Wear Pants To Church Day @ Nine Moons
  -  A group is asking Mormon women to wear pants to church this Sunday as a sign of support...

Turner, Part 2: Brigham as Preacher and Polygamist @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  [Part 1] This post covers Chapter 2 through 4 of John G. Turner's Brigham Young: Pioneer...

Turner, Part 1: Brigham the Reformed Methodist @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -   I'm a little late to the party for John G. Turner's Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet,...

Volcanism, Mormonism, and Historical Contingency @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  Mormonism can pop up just about anywhere these days. I was reading through The Story of...

The Best and Worst of the “Mormon Moment” @ Nine Moons
  -  We’ve been hearing for a while now about the so-called “Mormon Moment,”...

The Lost History of 1844 @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  Just finished The Lost History of 1914: Reconsidering the Year the Great War Began...

Old FARMS, New FARMS @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -   It has been a few months since the folks running the Maxwell Institute decided to blow...

Joseph Spencer's "An Other Testament: On Typology" @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -   Here is a casual review of Joe Spencer's An Other Testament: On Typology (Salt Press,...

Mormons, Evangelicals, and Mockery @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  I was gratified to read a piece posted at Patheos last week by Timothy Dalrymple titled...

Mormon Boundaries @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -   So I stumbled across a short book titled Judaism's Great Debates (Jewish Publication...

The Mormon Generation Gap @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  Although the vast majority of Mormons identify themselves as Republican, the younger...

Looking for Middle-Earth @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -   In the New York Times travel section, "New Zealand's Hobbit Trail" recounts the...

Elder Holland on Love and Loyalty @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  Elder Jeffrey R. Holland is known for his eloquent and moving calls to repentance aimed...

Priesthood Session Notes @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  President Uchtdorf conducted the Priesthood Session. I was pleased to see President...

Cafeteria Conference? @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  There's a surprisingly prevalent view within the Church that at General Conference we...

Mormon Peacemakers @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  And Evangelical peacemakers, too, both discussed in Evangelicals vs. Mormons: Blessed Are...

The Fate of the Earth @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -   Where did our planet come from? Why is it here (with us, conscious intelligent beings,...

The Veil: Thick or Thin? @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  In LDS thought, the veil as a symbol of the human condition is used in at least two...

Ann Romney Does SNL @ Nine Moons
  -   Check out this hilarious clip from SNL’s weekend update and let me know what you...

The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife @ Nine Moons
  -   A fragment of a book written in Coptic has now been discovered which suggests that early...

Unchurched Mormons: Spiritual But Not Religious? @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  The term "spiritual but not religious" has become popular over the last decade as...

Walls Around Sacred Places @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  I just spent ten days in Japan. I'd forgotten how enlightening it is to see the places,...

What Correlation Looks Like in Japan @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  I was in Tokyo on Sunday and was able to attend the full three-hour block of meetings at...

Brightly Beams @ Nine Moons
  -  Here’s another great version of one of my favorite hymns: Brightly Beams Our...

Getting Past the KJV @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -   The Summer 2012 issue of Dialogue contains an article by Grant Hardy titled "The King...

Practical Apologetics: Defining the middle path in Mormonism @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  Rachel's post at Times and Seasons couple of weeks ago, The Threat of New Order Mormons,...

Assessing the Optimal Degree of Religious Certainty @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  So I read through Terry Eagleton's Trouble With Strangers: A Study of Ethics...

FAIR Jumping Over a Cliff? @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  The ad hominem virus may be contagious. Having killed FARMS, it has apparently jumped to...

How Modern Are We? @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  The LDS Newsroom just posted another interesting essay, "Mormon and Modern." The essay...

Practical Apologetics: Help, I want to go back to church @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  Seismic changes at the Maxwell Institute have prompted reflective blog posts on the fate...

A Mormon and an Evangelical in Conversation: Idaho Falls Edition @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  I took the two-hour drive to Idaho Falls last night to hear Greg Johnson and Robert...

Our Dead V: Memorial Day at St. Paul’s Cathedral @ a bird's eye view
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You and Your Righteous Religious Mind @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  Psychology has come a long way the last couple of decades. Instead of seeing us coming...

Review: Mormonism: A Historical Encyclopedia @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  It is published as a reference work, but you can read it like a book, albeit a book of...

Troubling Dreams @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  I keep my visions to myself.Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?Mormons tend not to...

Polygamy 2012 @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  Once upon a time, family law was a marginal legal topic that didn't make many headlines...

Esoteric Mormonism: Marginal or Mainstream? @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  I recently finished reading Samuel Brown's In Heaven as It Is on Earth: Joseph Smith and...

Mormon Doctrine: Confusion or Clarity? @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  Mormon doctrine is showing up in unlikely places lately, including the campaign trail,...

Mormonism: A Religion of the Head or of the Heart? @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  That question is not as straightforward as you might think. Garry Wills' Head and Heart:...

Review: The Book of Mormon Girl @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  Joanna Brooks is the Chair of the Department of English and Comparative Literature at San...

The Bott Affair: Winners and Losers @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  It has been only one week since the initial Washington Post article quoting BYU Professor...

A Different Jesus? @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  Google "a different jesus" and you'll find that 7 of the first 10 links that come up on...

Sports as Religious Experience @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -   That's where two talented philosophers, Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly, end up...

God and Science @ Digital Faith
  -   Here's a second and final post on Collins and Giberson's The Language of Science and...

Latent Racism, Orientalism and “Magic Underwear” in American Society and Mitt Romney’s Presidential Campaign @ a bird's eye view
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Straight Answers to Gospel Questions: Evolution @ Digital Faith
  -   Time to fire up the blog for a few posts on the latest entry in my Now Reading box, The...

Genesis 1: Theories of Creation @ Digital Faith
  -   In the middle part of The Lost World of Genesis One, Walton details his theory of the...

Genesis 1 Is Functional Creation @ Digital Faith
  -   In propositions 2 through 6 of The Lost World of Genesis One author John Walton supports...

Genesis 1 Is Ancient Cosmology @ Digital Faith
  -   That's the first of 18 propositions discussed in John Walton's The Lost World of Genesis...

N. T. Wright on Paul @ Digital Faith
  -   In this last of my series of posts on Paul I will do a short review of N. T. Wright's...

Becoming a Mormon: Thinking about a Brand with Elder Ballard @ a bird's eye view
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Paul at General Conference @ Digital Faith
  -   My recent posts on Paul haven't proven too popular, but I'm still pursuing the topic. I...

A Revolutionary Paul @ Digital Faith
  -   Continuing with this series of posts on Paul, here's what N. T. Wright (in What Saint...

Reading Paul's Letters @ Digital Faith
  -   My last post was titled "A Mormon View of Paul." This post is more about the view of...

Highlights From Hardy @ Digital Faith
  -   Times & Seasons has posted a 12 Questions interview with Grant Hardy. He gives serious...

Like a Trampled Flag on a City Street @ a bird's eye view
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Pluralism and Persecution in the UK @ a bird's eye view
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Where Does It End? The Real Danger in Warren Smith’s Perspective @ a bird's eye view
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Christmas Testimony @ a bird's eye view
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Seattle Area, Winter 2011, Adult Religion Class: Doctrine and Covenants @ Splendid Sun
  -  Well, it looks like I will be teaching a once-a-week class on the Doctrine and Covenants...

Our Remembrance Sunday @ a bird's eye view
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Mormonism’s Last Colonizer @ Splendid Sun
  -  This week, Utah State University Press released a biography of William H. Smart. Smart...

“knowledge, and power, by revelation” @ Splendid Sun
  -  A month ago I came home from teaching seminary and I was met by my wife. She told me to...

A Textual History of the KFD, Part II @ Splendid Sun
  -  This post is a direct continuation of Part I and follows without introduction. The...

A Textual History of the KFD, Part I: Sources to the “History of Joseph Smith” @ Splendid Sun
  -  Part II of the series is available here. EDITORIAL NOTE: This post contains links to...

The end of an era @ Splendid Sun
  -  I am a chemist by training, but Mormon history has always been open to dilettants (for...

Research update on Mormon healing @ Splendid Sun
  -  As some know, Kris and I have worked together for the past couple of years doing research...

Two latest in Signature’s Significant Diary Series @ Splendid Sun
  -  John P. Hatch, ed., Danish Apostle: The Diaries of Anthon H. Lund (Salt Lake City,...

A Lady’s Life among the Mormons @ Splendid Sun
  -  One of the most invaluable publication series in Mormon Studies is Utah State University...

Elder Ballard’s Advice–Start a Blog @ Splendid Sun
  -  I haven’t written for a while, and now I feel remiss. Today was graduation day at...