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Mormon Inquiry

Nothing on the LDS news wire that’s hot, but there’s plenty going on in the world. It’s messy and getting messier. Here are a few thought-provoking links.

I finally secured a copy of Richard L. Bushman’s Mormonism: A Very Short Introduction. Bushman, a historian, is the author of Rough Stone Rolling, the definitive biography of Joseph Smith, as well as the Howard W. Hunter Professor of Mormon Studies in the School of Religion at Claremont Graduate Univeristy in Southern California. This is…

North Korean missile tests, Iranian nuclear ambitions, GM going bankrupt … can The End be far off? Morehead’s Musings reviews Apocalyptic Transformation: Apocalypse and the Postmodern Imagination (Lexington Books: 2008), suggesting apocalyptic anxiety is less a religious doctrine than an aspect of the human condition. The book discusses apocalyptic themes in a variety of films…

At Get Religion, “The Mormons are coming!“, taking issue with aspects of a Washington Post article of the same name. I would summarize the general problem in simpler terms: some journalists in the mainstream press believe their own propaganda, which they use to frame most stories and to select friendly facts. Let’s look at an…

The Mormon Times reports on the remarks of historian William P. MacKinnon at the recent MHA meetings. MacKinnon summarized his paper, “Stephen A. Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Mormon Problem: The 1857 Debate.” Relying on what he admitted to be “rumors and reports,” Douglas supported the use of military force to “to remove Brigham Young…

And that prof is … Bart Ehrman, professor of religious studes at UNC-Chapel Hill. He’s in the news in connection with the publication of his most recent book, Jesus, Interrupted. As reported at CNN, Prof. Ehrman’s family won’t talk to him about religion anymore.

It’s what comes naturally, according to the author of “The ‘Bitch’ Evolved: Why Girls Are So Cruel to Each Other,” posted at ScientificAmerican.com. He notes a pattern that is probably not news to most readers: While teenage boys and young male adults are more prone to engage in direct aggression, which includes physical acts of…

To public life. Don’t let American headlines fool you — the global tide of faith is still coming in, according to the recently published God is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith is Changing the World. The Religious Studies Center Blog provides a short review of the book.

As expected, the California Supreme Court upheld the propriety of Proposition 8’s amendment to the state constitution in an opinion released today, but left same-sex marriages performed since May 2008 in force. Here’s from the LA Times story: The California Supreme Court today upheld Proposition 8’s ban on same-sex marriage but also ruled that gay…

The Mormon Times reports on one of the more interesting MHA sessions in “Reflections of an Emma Hale Smith biographer.” Both stories make interesting reading: the story of Emma Smith, Joseph’s first wife; and the story of Linda King Newell, the surviving author of Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith, which won the MHA best book…
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