The Mormon Archipelago

Book Review: Jake Johnson, MORMONS, MUSICAL THEATER, AND BELONGING IN AMERICA (Illinois, 2019) @ Juvenile Instructor
  -   Once I wrote this sentence: “The musical Saturday’s Warrior might well be the most...

“A blessed people” @ Keepapitchinin
  -  We are a blessed people. I know of no other people in the world who have more reason to...

30-50 feral hogs or unruly swine? @ Juvenile Instructor
  -   Twitter was created for certain things, and one of those things occured last week. If...

Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought announces a new editor @ Juvenile Instructor
  -   The Dialogue Foundation’s Board of Directors is pleased to announce that Taylor...

2019 JSP Conference: Program and Registration @ Juvenile Instructor
  -   On Friday, October 11, 2019, the Joseph Smith Papers Project will host the third annual...

Tom: “Enough to Cause the Angels in Heaven to Blush” @ Keepapitchinin
  -  Paul wrote this for sharing on Facebook and Twitter, and has given permission to have it...

“The spirit of murder seems to be on the increase … due to the increase in firearms”: George Q. Cannon Denounces Gun Violence, 1891 @ Juvenile Instructor
  -   In the July 15, 1891 issue of the (original) Juvenile Instructor, Mormon apostle and...

“The spirit of murder seems to be on the increase …” @ Keepapitchinin
  -  Spirit of Murder

So Great a Cloud of Witness @ Keepapitchinin
  -  Cloud of Witness

Music in the Home @ Keepapitchinin
  -  From the Relief Society Magazine, August 1949 – Music in the Home By Norma Wrathall...

Berkeley L. Bunker: The Unexpected Senator @ Keepapitchinin
  -  Berkeley L. Bunker

Review: Enlisting Faith: How the Military Chaplaincy Shaped Religion and State in Modern America @ Juvenile Instructor
  -   Military chaplains are tasked with leading worship, teaching the faithful, and burying...

More Value Than Many Sparrows @ Keepapitchinin
  -  Sparrows

Review: Brigham Young and the Expansion of the Mormon Faith @ Juvenile Instructor
  -   Juvenile Instructor is grateful for a JI-emeritus writer, Brett Dowdle, for writing...

The Cable: Chapter 2 @ Keepapitchinin
  -  Cable 2

Paid Intern (Full-time)- Church History Department @ Juvenile Instructor
  -   UNITED STATES |  UT-Salt Lake City ID 239568, Type: Temporary...

The Cable: Chapter 1 (of 2) @ Keepapitchinin
  -  Cable 1

Tips for Writing Histories and Journals @ Keepapitchinin
  -  Writing

Joseph Smith’s 1832 First Vision Account and Plato’s Cave @ Juvenile Instructor
  -   So Universal Theosophy having recently put Thomas Taylor’s 1804 translation of...

Digitized Publications Available from Utah Archives @ Juvenile Instructor
  -   This post will focus on digitized periodicals and publications available through Utah...

“Teleiono” @ Faith-Promoting Rumor
  -  For a while now, President Nelson has been including (ostensible) references to ancient...

Definitive Thoughts on Reversing the 2015 Policy @ Faith-Promoting Rumor
  -   The policy was wrong. They were wrong. There is no defense. No apologetics can...

Alonzo Gaskill and BYU: In the Headlines Again @ Faith-Promoting Rumor
  -  Last week an article appeared that claimed Alonzo Gaskill, (full) Professor of Church...

Gettin’ Healthy Phase Two: Fasting Protocols @ New Cool Thang
  -  In the first installment of this series I talked about how the first step I took to...

I decided to get less fat this year: Phase One @ New Cool Thang
  -  So I’ve cut like 30 pounds of fat this year. I figured I’d blog about it....

20 years up and running @ New Cool Thang
  -  20 Years ago today, I was baptised. 20 years on, I still believe.    

Your Help Please: Who Was Surveilling Leonard Arrington While He Worked at BYU? @ Faith-Promoting Rumor
  -  Leonard Arrington is known for producing some of the most important scholarly work on...

Faith and scholarship, yet again, and at BYU @ Faith-Promoting Rumor
  -  Back in 2012, TT announced a series here on the balance or integration of faith and...

BYU’s Religious Education: A Ticking Time Bomb in the #metoo Era? @ Faith-Promoting Rumor
  -  With the recent revelations of serious and disturbing allegations of a pattern of sexual...

Teaching the Old Testament: An Official Statement About Interpretation @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  The course of study for LDS Gospel Doctrine classes for 2018 is the Old Testament, which...

Review of The Formation of the Pentateuch, ed. J. Gertz, B. Levinson, D. Rom-Shiloni, K. Schmid (Mohr Siebeck, 2016) @ Faith-Promoting Rumor
  -  I posted a review of The Formation of the Pentateuch: Bridging the Academic Cultures of...

Fiction and History @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  I'll give you a couple of book discussions after one short paragraph on fiction and...

What the LDS Can Learn From the NFL @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -   It has been a tough year for the NFL. Football is a sport; the NFL is a brand. After...

The Brigham Option: Living in a Post-Christian Nation @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -   I have heard a lot about Rod Dreher's The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in...

Insulting Utes on Twitter @ New Cool Thang
  -  Hey look! I just noticed I still own this blog… nice. Ok, I knew I still owned NCT....

The Authorship of Isaiah Revisited: A Response to Daniel Ellsworth @ Faith-Promoting Rumor
  -  A few days after my recent post about the Isaiah that Nephi could not have known, Daniel...

BYU Does the BCE Thing @ Faith-Promoting Rumor
  -  According to an article I was reading in Meridian magazine a couple of weeks ago touting...

Strengthen Your Marriage @ Faith-Promoting Rumor
  -  Cute couple, no?  Find out how to strengthen your marriage as they discuss theirs! What...

Review of Perspectives on Mormon Theology: Apologetics @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -   After a few warm-up posts last month (here, here, and here), it's time to get serious...

Practical Apologetics: What's Wrong With You? @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  How do you talk to an Ex-Mormon? Or a less-active Mormon who you bump into at church or a...

Practical Apologetics: The Doubting Elder @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  Time for another installment in this occasional series. As reported in the Deseret News,...

What's Worse, Bad Apologetics or No Apologetics? @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  The golden era of Mormon apologetics ran from Nibley to FAIR and Old FARMS. With so many...

Review: A Peculiar People, or How Protestants Viewed Mormons in the Nineteenth Century @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -   So I finally got around to reading J. Spencer Fluhman's book "A Peculiar People":...

6 Questions for Tom Kimball on the Kirtland Temple @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  The Sunday School curriculum is currently covering the Kirtland period of LDS history,...

Religion and Self-Deception @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  I just finished The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life...

Moving to Seattle @ New Cool Thang
  -  This Summer, My Family will be moving to Seattle. Questions I have: What is church like...

Let's Talk About Sorcery @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  Borrowing the title from my good friends at BCC, let's talk about sorcery, another...

Mason on the Professionalization of Mormon History @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  Millennial Star posted links to a podcast discussion with Patrick Mason on the...

MormonLeaks Posts Additional Documents @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  The MormonLeaks site continues to periodically post documents providing a bit of inside...

The Evolution of Adam @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -   That's a book by Christian scholar Peter Enns: The Evolution of Adam: What the Bible...

Mormonism in the (Post)Modern World @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  The Wheatley Institution hosted a conference at BYU last month, "Reason for Hope:...

Sunday School 2.0 (sort of) @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -   Love it or hate it, it's still around: Gospel Doctrine in LDS Sunday School. The SL Trib...

The Misguided Quest for a Common Moral Framework @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  The Mormon Newsroom just posted a new think-y piece titled "The Quest for a Common Moral...

Utah election results @ New Cool Thang
  -  Alot of people are bothered that Trump won Utah. A couple things to keep an eye on. In...

The Policy: Year One @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  Happy birthday, Policy, you are one year old today. In January I posted "Policy or...

Five Possible Wrong Turns for Religion @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -   I've read several books and essays in the science versus religion genre, some by secular...

The Mormon Ross Perot Moment @ New Cool Thang
  -  Ross Perot was the anti-establishment candidate in 1992, who rose to prominence for...

Conditional Love Is Back @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  The recently announced LDS doctrine of conditional divine love comes from President...

From Civic to Liberal Republicanism: John Locke and the Dutch @ New Cool Thang
  -  This is the 4th part in my series whereby I roughly follow Jerry Muller’s Thinking...

Future Mormons? @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -   This is a review of and a response to Adam Miller's recent book, Future Mormon: Essays...

A Genealogy of Self-Interest: Machiavelli and Hobbes @ New Cool Thang
  -  This is the third post in my series where I appropriate Jerry Muller’s lecture series...

Greek/Christian Condemnations of Profit/Usury @ New Cool Thang
  -  (This is the second in a series of posts dedicated to the relationship between Mormonism...

Classroom Discussion: Productive or Not? @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  The LDS Sunday School General President posted this short article at LDS.org (in the...

Korihor the Witch @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. (Ex. 22:18)I recently read Peter Charles Hoffer's...

"Come Back" -- with some thoughts on why they left in the first place @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  A couple of weeks ago I taught Lesson #12 in the Howard W. Hunter manual, titled Come...

Thoughts on Planted: Apologetics in an Age of Doubt @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -   Patrick Q. Mason's Planted: Belief and Belonging in an Age of Doubt (2015) is the latest...

The New Harmonized First Vision Account @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -   Sunday night, Elder Richard J. Maynes, of the Presidency of the Seventy, delivered a CES...

Calling All Millennials @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -   The most interesting talk at UVU's just-completed Mormonism and the Art of Boundary...

Review of Mormon Feminism: Essential Writings @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -   I enjoyed reading Mormon Feminism: Essential Writings (OUP, 2016), a 300-page collection...

Elder Ballard on Building a Better Boat @ Dave's Mormon Inquiry
  -  In October 2014, Elder Ballard delivered his "Stay in the Boat" talk at General...