Dramatization of ancient Jewish priests with blood on their clothes preparing another sacrifice at the ancient temple in Jerusalem.
National Geographic has put together a 3-DVD set about the life of Jesus in a series called Science of the Bible. Each DVD contains a different aspect of his life. In a documentary called “The Arrest”, they document the ancient Jewish practices at the temple and events leading to his arrest. The producers of the documentary strive for an incredible detail of historical accuracy. They try to show the people were dressed at the time, exactly how the temple looked, the sacrifices that were offered.
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Clay Painter of Mormon Expression interviewed Bob Price about his opinions of the Book of Mormon. Not everyone believes the Book of Mormon is a truly divine document, but I found it interesting to hear that Bob finds value in the Book of Mormon, despite his being an atheist. Regarding Mormon Expression, sometimes I find that it seems to be a rant against the church, but other times, it has some really interesting information. This podcast was one of those good episodes, so I decided to transcribe the entire half-hour interview. I’ll let Clay introduce Bob to you.
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I transcribed a bit more of the Jana Riess interview from Mormon Stories. There have been many posts (such as this one by Mike S) lamenting the fact that the activity rates seem to be slowing for the LDS Church. I thought it was interesting that John Dehlin acknowledged that atheists are having a hard time keeping their children “in the fold” as well.
For a bit of background, Jana Riess was raised by an atheistic dad, and her mom wasn’t very religious either. Yet, Jana felt pulled toward religious faith, joining with the Presbyterians before embracing Mormonism. John questioned why it is hard for atheists to keep their children away from religion. This corresponds immediately after their conversation that I transcribed previously. Read more…
Jana Riess has recently published a book called Flunking Sainthood in which she decides to spend 1 month participating in various spiritual rituals. For example, she spent one month fasting from sun up to sun down as a pious Muslim would do during Ramadan (though she picked the month of February because it had the fewest days), she spent another month observing the Sabbath as an Orthodox Jew would, she spent another month in mindfulness prayer, and many other spiritual practices from a variety of religious traditions. I really enjoyed the book–she has a witty sense of humor, but she claims to have failed nearly every spiritual practice for a year.
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Since today is MLK day, I thought it might be nice to talk about the first Black Mormon leader. In his book on The Historical Setting of Joseph Smith’s Ohio Revelations, Mark Staker spends a surprising amount of time discussing the first Black Mormon Convert–a former slave known as Black Pete, and notes that he was an early leader in Kirtland.
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I always enjoy going to the LDS Film Festival. This year it will be held in Orem, Utah (Scera Theater) from Jan 25-28. The official schedule will come out on Monday, but some of the bigger films have already been announced here. The biggest headline name is Dean Cain in a film called Sweetwater (a movie about cancer.) Anyway, I plan to talk about it more in the coming weeks, but wanted to give a preview for anyone interested.
Dr Jeffrey Chadwick, BYU Jerusalem Center
In his 1915 classic entitled Jesus the Christ, Elder James E. Talmage maintained that Jesus Christ was born on April 6 in the year 1 BC.1 Talmage was apparently the first LDS writer to propose this particular date. Nearly a century has passed since his book appeared, and in that time it has become practically axiomatic among Latter-day Saints that Jesus was born on April 6 of 1 BC.
The above quote comes from the January 2011 issue of BYU Studies. Jeffrey Chadwick has undertaken a study to figure out when Jesus was born, and he comes to the conclusion that December was the correct month. Trying to precisely date the birth of Jesus is problematic, because Luke and Matthew can’t even agree on when Jesus was born. Read more…
Not sure what to get for someone who knows everything about Mormon history? Here’s a last minute gift-idea: The Nauvoo City Council and High Council Minutes. The book is due to be released on Dec 19 and is edited by John Dinger. This is the first time that the City Council Minutes have ever been available to the public.
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Soon after the publication of the Book of Mormon, critics believed that Joseph must have plagiarized it from another source. One of the most prominent theories since the 1830’s is the Spaulding (or Spalding) Theory. Briefly, the theory states that Joseph Smith plagiarized (or at least used as a source) an unpublished book written by Solomon Spaulding. Spaulding died in 1816, so the book must have been written before then. There has been a relative resurgence of the theory because Stanford University published a statistical study in support of the theory. BYU recently posted a rebuttal to the Stanford study.
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Daniel Peterson
Dan Wotherspoon put together a 4 hour interview with BYU Professor Daniel Peterson on a variety of topics. It is available on the Mormon Stories Website or at iTunes. I really enjoyed the interview, and decided to create a transcript for part 3 where Peterson talked about his (futile) experience trying to improve the church manuals. On Part 3 at the 34:48 mark: Read more…
Dimensions of Faith:A Mormon Studies reader is a collection of essays on varying topics in Mormon studies. I previously discussed Wilford Woodruff’s vision of the Founding Fathers. One of the most entertaining essays was titled “A Mormon Bigfoot” by Matthew Bowman. In the essay, Bowman discusses how Cain seems to have morphed into Bigfoot.
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I know I’m behind the times. I don’t watch television very often, and I don’t have cable or satellite tv. But I recently got a Netflix subscription, and I discovered that Sister Wives was on. Over the past few weeks, I’ve watched all 18 episodes of season 1 and season 2. It really is entertaining. Over and over, I kept asking myself, “how do they afford such a large family?” Season 2, episode 3 answers the question. Read more…
KC Kern did a series of guest posts at Wheat and Tares called “Legend of the Lost Book of Gold”. I thought he did a fantastic job discussing the theory. In part 1, he discussed a story of Christian missionaries taught a group called the Karens that already worshiped a god called Y’wa. Part 2 discusses the actual theory in more depth. Part 3 discusses common objections to the theory, and Part 4 gives a conclusion to the series. If you haven’t read the series, please check it out.
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