Nibley, In His Own Words by Dave
Nibley and Science by Clark Goble
Learn Hebrew for Hugh by Ronan JH

Weekly Zeitgeist by Steve
Bloggernacle A&E by William Morris
The 2005 MHA Conference by Justin Butterfield

Hugh Nibley, the patriarch of Mormon Studies, passed away this week. He left an indelible mark on the entire LDS community, not just Mormon scholars, thanks to the many books he authored, the dozens of articles he wrote for LDS magazines, the hundreds of presentations he delivered to a variety of LDS audiences, and the thousands of students he taught during his lengthy tenure at BYU. Among his books was Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless, a collection of previously published essays to which he added a short introduction entitled “An Intellectual Autobiography.” I offer a few short quotes from that account: Nibley, in his own words.

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Before I launch into the first of my discussions about science and religion, let me speak about Nibley. His death and the controversy about his daughter’s book have clearly been the topic of the week. Dave suggested that we perhaps make Nibley a topic of our posts this week. That’s a little harder for me, since I’m supposed to be talking about science. Nibley definitely discussed science in several of his essays. His discussions, however, were typically things he’d picked up from popularizations of science (i.e., books about some scientific topic written for non-scientists). Unfortunately, as often as not he misunderstood the topic, at least from a scientist’s point of view.

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In honour of Hugh Nibley, Dave posted a link to Nibley’s Zeal Without Knowledge as his Online Essay of the Week at DMI. I consider this my favourite Nibley essay. Particularly enjoyable is the following quote:

How many a Latter-day Saint has told me that he can understand the scriptures by pure revelation and does not need to toil at Greek or Hebrew as the Prophet and the Brethren did in the School of the Prophets at Kirtland and Nauvoo? Even Oliver Cowdery fell into that trap and was rebuked for it (D&C 9).

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Welcome back, bloggernauts. It’s been a fun week, though one largely without heated controversy or argument. Oh well.

Behold what ye have wrought!

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Bob Caswell opened up the R-rated movies can of worms over at By Common Consent with his post The Passion Recut: Mormon Friendly? This is one of those topics guaranteed to generate a ton of comments. And it did, 190 to be exact. As usual the conversation was difficult and contentious in places, but it’s worth reading (or at least the latter third of it is).
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