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Select a Month September 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 February 2014 October 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011

September 2014

September 09, 2014

Temple 7: Bull Sacrifice

Roman mural depicting of a bull (wearing crown and garlands) being brought to the sacrificial...

September 08, 2014

Mysticism Class 2: What is Mysticism (pt. 1)

A discussion of the range of meanings to the term Mysticism (part 1)

September 08, 2014

Golden Plates

The closest known parallel the Book of Mormon golden plates in size, script, function and...

September 03, 2014

Temple 6: covenant gesture?

This is the surviving terracotta arm of an early Etruscan statue. The arm is pre-made...

September 03, 2014

Mysticism and Esotericism (ME) 1: Course Introduction

I taught the first class on Mysticism and Esotericism today, and experimented with recording it....

September 02, 2014

Temple 5: Lampstand (Menorah)

Early Roman (or Etruscan?) bronze lamp-stands. One has a built in lamp, and one has...

September 01, 2014

Temple 4: Sacrifice of Semiramis

The legend of Semiramis, queen of Assyria, has many different forms. (Probably to be associated...

August 2014

August 27, 2014

Temple 3: First Fruits

This statue shows a Roman emperor Pontifex Maximus (High Priest), with veiled head in preparation for...

August 26, 2014

Mysticism and Esotericism

I'm teaching a new class at BYU this fall: History 485 "Mysticism and Esotericism." I've...

August 26, 2014

Temple 2: Primordial Sacrifice

This is the most famous and elegant of the representations of the primordial bull sacrifice by...

August 23, 2014

Temple 1: Brazen Sea

The Brass Sea (Brazen or Bronze Sea) (2 Kgs 25:13-16; 1 Chr 18:8; Jer 52:17-20; cf....

August 22, 2014

YHWH in Greek scripture

Larry Hurtado's interesting comments on the use of the term YHWH/Yahweh/Jehovah in the Greek OT...

August 13, 2014

Blog of the Irish

Robert Boylan (my favorite Irishman--after the Lucky Charms guy) has a new LDS-oriented theological blog...

August 09, 2014

Mary, the Mother of Jesus

This week's Deseret News column by Dan Peterson and me is on Mary, the Mother...

August 06, 2014

FAIR Conference

I assume that all of my readers are familiar with FAIR (the Foundation for Apologetic...

August 03, 2014

Putting Putti in Their Place

No one has ever, for obvious reasons, confused me with the Lord God Almighty. (Though...

August 02, 2014

DN column on Constantine

With Dan Peterson. Click here.

July 2014

July 13, 2014

Historicity as Dividing Line

The default assumption of non-LDS is that the unique LDS scripture in the Pearl of...

July 12, 2014

David Larsen on Scripture

An in depth and insightful analysis of the nature of scripture from David Larsen at...

July 11, 2014

Abrahamic Issues

The recent Church statement on the "Translation and Historicity of the Book of Abraham" has...

July 11, 2014

What is Scripture? and is it relevant?

Well, that all depends on what you mean by "scripture" and what you mean by...

July 09, 2014

Milvian Bridge, 312 AD

Those who think that "violence never solves anything" have never studied history. For good or...

June 2014

June 30, 2014

Rome

Tomorrow I'm off to Rome for a month. I'll have intermittent wifi access, and will...

June 30, 2014

Thoughts on Historicity

Those who propose that our scriptures are best understood as "inspired fiction" almost inevitably frame...

June 21, 2014

Predatory Disbelief

Despite the rhetorical posturing of many critics of the Church, it does not excommunicate people...

June 18, 2014

Hamblin-Peterson Column on Relics

See here.

June 18, 2014

Apostasy or Heresy?

There is an (intentional?) confusion and conflation among some critics of the Church regarding the...

June 18, 2014

What is Apostasy?

Some of the critics of the Church like to claim that "apostasy" means "standing apart,"...

June 11, 2014

Mysticism 1: new class at BYU

I'm going to be teaching a class on "Mysticism and Esotericism" at BYU, in Fall...

June 11, 2014

Heavenly Ascents

People interested in temple theology, deification, celestial ascent, and biblical esoterica should check out David...