A place holder until I figure out what I am supposed to write in this post.
June 1, 2009
June 1, 2009
There is, of course, too much to summarize from a week of thinking and discussing scripture. Here are the three threads of discussion I found most interesting. (more…)
May 25, 2009
For this week’s post, I have gone verse by verse and added questions and thoughts to get the discussion started. Please add your own insights and questions (and answers, of course 
) quite freely. (more…)
May 25, 2009
[Coming soon!]
May 18, 2009
I will start by making some general theological musings, and then I will add a list of somewhat stream-of-consciousness, not-particularly-profound thoughts on a verse-by-verse basis.
(more…)
May 16, 2009
Doctrine and Covenants section 42 is caught up in a remarkably complex history. (more…)
May 10, 2009
How to situate D&C 42? In essence, I have outlined four separate approaches to the context of the revelation, each introduced by a bold heading. I anticipate, of course, that others will have other approaches to bring to the table: if you do not add to or take away from what I’ve put together here, your names will be blotted out of the book of life!
Whatever approach should be taken, I have not here looked (at all!) at the content of the revelation itself, really. I deal in the first “approach” with its basic structure and provenance, but not with its content or meaning at the level of the verse. In the second “approach,” I bother with the content only enough to set it in relation to a whole series of revelations preceding it. I invert this in the third “approach,” setting D&C 42 in relation to a whole series of revelations (and history) following it. And finally, in my fourth (and most complex) “approach,” I work out a series of quite sketchy “canonical critical” readings of the revelation. If I have not at all begun to do serious textual work on the revelation itself, my hope is that these several attempts to situate the text will make it easier for us to do serious textual work in the coming weeks.
I should note also that this initial post is excessively long—indeed, it is ridiculous. I found myself so fascinated by the history surrounding and involving D&C 42 that I found myself carried away by things. My apologies in advance for the length. (more…)
