Best of the Box 8
New installments of ongoing series: at FPR, Part 5 of Ancient Israel’s Canaanite Heritage; BCC posts Part 8 of the History of Correlation, which finally gets to Correlation; and Mormon Matters posts BiV’s latest Sunday School discussion (on Lesson 12). Okay, here are links to a few notable posts from the MA boxes, this week in reverse order to bring a little balance to the Force.
Box 7 – NDBF’s Bloggernacle dodgeball jousts with pointed comments from Ardis at this BOAP post. The words apostate and fascist are entirely absent from the discussion, showing that Bloggernaclers are learning how to disagree politely.
Box 6 – Mormon Insights continues the play nice theme with Respecting Religious Differences.
Box 5 – Clean Cut posts The Challenges of Defining Mormon Doctrine, with links to a paper of the same name published in Element. [Uh, I can't get the text of the paper to load in Firefox. Hints?]
Box 4 – MM rocks with Nominalism, Pratt & McConkie, which is well worth reading even if the title sounds strangely like a law firm. Box 4 also offers several posts summarizing presentations at the recent SMPT conference, at MM, ZD, and Small and Simple.
Box 3 – AMV posts Part 6 of a series on Mormon publishing. And ASA gives links to the humor post of the week … from General Petraeus.
Box 2 – Eric Hunstman, visiting at T&S for Easter Week, posts Palm Sunday, one of several posts he’s putting up this week. The Mormon liturgical calendar revolves around General Conference and Pioneer Day, not Christmas and Easter, so this series of posts at T&S helps us get a sense of how mainstream Christians order their worship.
Box 1 – At JI, the title says it all: How I Became a Mormon Historian and Just About the Only Mormon Fan of Refiner’s Fire.
Outside the Box – At the Arizona Repulic, a tear-jerker piece about a mother who couldn’t attend the temple marriage of her LDS convert son, who married his LDS sweetheart in the Mesa Arizona temple. Obviously, I sympathize with the parents and hope there are compensating virtues to be had, such as having a happily married son and daughter-in-law who honor their parents, buy an SUV, and fill it with grandkids. Another perspective on the story: Being Mormon isn’t easy; we’ve all been there. Here’s wishing a happy and successful Mormon life to Chase and Annie Richardson.
Book Reviews – New feature. Here are reviews posted this week. Feel free to add links if I missed any.
- Blair at LOGP reviews Grant Hardy’s Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Guide.
- J. Stapley at BCC reviews Polly Aird’s Mormon Convert, Mormon Defector.
- J. Stapley at BCC reviews a new illustrated edition of Truman Madsen’s Joseph Smith: The Prophet.
- Blair at LOGP reviews John Sanders’ No Other Name: An Investigation Into the Destiny of the Unevangelized.
Love these posts. Great job, Dave.
Comment by Randy B. — March 29, 2010 @ 12:28 pm
Great round-up, Dave. Thanks.
Comment by J. Stapley — March 29, 2010 @ 12:46 pm
I read that Arizona Republic article and it broke my heart. I hate, hate, hate that policy. I hope there are more stories like this in the press so that the powers that be will see clearly how much goodwill we as a church lose from this needless policy.
Comment by Kevin Barney — March 29, 2010 @ 1:30 pm
Kevin, you mean the policy of not allowing a public “secular” ceremony around the time of the temple ceremony? Or not allowing non-recommend holders into the temple ceremony. Personally I think they should allow some pseudo-ceremony outside of the temple since we do in effect have a distinction between the secular marriage and the real marriage. I don’t see why the temple has to be the one to fill out the marriage license. However I can’t really reconcile how to let non-members or non-worthy members into the area around the Celestial Room.
Comment by Clark — March 29, 2010 @ 2:31 pm
BTW- Element is only available for members of SMPT. (I actually host the site) So the papers should only load if you are a member and have a password. Ditto for the audio of past SMPT sessions (and presumably this one)
Comment by Clark — March 29, 2010 @ 4:35 pm
One more reason to join SMPT, Clark.
Comment by Dave — March 29, 2010 @ 4:42 pm
I should note Element is available in printed form as well. It’s a fantastic little journal I’d highly encourage anyone interested in Mormon philosophy to subscribe to. The newest edition is quite great.
Comment by Clark — April 1, 2010 @ 12:12 am
Dave, the link to that Element article should work whether or not you’re subscribed to SMPT. It loads fine on Safari. Haven’t tried firefox. Could it depend on a filter you may be using? By any means, I enjoy the “best of the box” feature. Thanks for pointing me to some good stuff.
Comment by Clean Cut — April 5, 2010 @ 1:55 pm