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Joseph Smith

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July 2017

July 03, 2017

A Letter for My Someday-Teenage Children

I write all of this to you, my kids-who-are-probably-too-young-to-make-it-through-this-entire-letter, to explain my commitment to Mormonism,...

April 2017

April 21, 2017

First-Order Myopia: What Donald Trump Can Learn from Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith's life was cut short because he failed to look beyond first-order consequences. Trump...

April 08, 2017

Mormon Illustration and the Burden of History – 1 of 2

In his book Miracles, C.S. Lewis dwells for a peculiarly long time on the Ascension...

June 2016

June 23, 2016

Review: The Mormon Jesus

Perhaps my devotional life’s greatest flaw is that I forget about Jesus. Intellectually, of course, I...

March 2016

March 02, 2016

Wait, What Is The White Horse Prophecy?

Americans rarely unilaterally agree on anything, but there has risen one important break from that...

November 2015

November 08, 2015

Mistakes in Mormonism; or Why the Church Handbook isn’t Doctrine

By Gary Ashcroft Let me preface my comments with a few statements. I am Mormon....

October 2015

October 16, 2015

The 5 Best References to Mormonism in the History of Television

So that Quantico show debuted a little while back. It's a show about FBI agents...

September 2015

September 03, 2015

Death, Sealing Power, and “Trusting into Transformation”

[Preliminary note: This is the first of two posts relaying insights from a few years...

August 2015

August 13, 2015

Matt Bowman and Ben Park Talk Seer Stones On RadioWest

For the lucky few vacationing in isolated corners of the world without internet access,...

August 07, 2015

A Review and a Farewell: Of Manuscripts and Seer Stones

I've been, as Mormons say, "less active" here at the blog for the past few...

December 2014

December 19, 2014

Joseph Smith Papers: Documents Volume 3

A couple of weeks ago, I participated---by Skype---in the launch event for the newest Documents...

November 2014

November 05, 2014

Consecrating the widow’s mite

The Filipino widow’s mite The widow’s mite is a poignant story, but one in which...

June 2014

June 09, 2014

Kirtland Temple: An Excerpt from the Book

On June 2, the University of Illinois Press released my first book, Kirtland Temple: The...

May 2014

May 29, 2014

On Translation Theories and the Interpretation of the Book of Mormon

Since Blake Ostler's landmark article appeared in Dialogue in 1987, there's been something of a...

October 2013

October 30, 2013

There’s So Much to Do, Outside the Ivory Tower!

I am an independent scholar. Not independently wealthy unfortunately – I have to earn my...

July 2013

July 08, 2013

Hidden Cameras

“My mom is watching me,” my son’s six year-old friend Jared confided. Jared and my...

May 2013

May 20, 2013

Joseph Smith the Seeker and Same-sex Marriage: The Community of Christ Negotiating Change

The Community of Christ’s April 2013 USA National Conference in Independence, Missouri resoundingly approved...