January 2009 Archives

From David Ford's Theology: A Very Short Introduction:

Religions are learning communities which benefit from interactions with other learning communities, and they also need to cultivate their own educational institutions. There have been devastating consequences when religious communities have had negative attitudes to study, scholarship, and intelligent faith, or have failed to face intelligently major questions, discoveries, or developments. There have also been extraordinary achievements when intelligent faith, deep learning, and imaginative wisdom have come together.

Two quick comments. I'm proud of how the LDS Church's commitment to Brigham Young University has secured a positive role for learning and science within the Church as a whole. Also, I wonder, in the wake of Correlation, how much of what looks like teaching and learning in church settings on Sunday is actually a form of training or socialization.

From Things of My Soul, "Creeping Mormonism," relating the author's surprise at seeing distinctively Mormon doctrines and beliefs, such as the idea of eternal marriage, sometimes appear in Protestant preaching or practice. It's a two-way street, of course: many of the early Mormon doctrines had parallels in other Christian denominations of the day. Later, in one of the more unfortunate borrowings, certain LDS leaders imported Young Earth creationist theories into the LDS mainstream by relying on the arguments of George McCready Price.

I propose a trade. Mormonism will give back Young Earth Creationism if Protestants will give back eternal marriage.

At the Mormon Times, "Inside the lost McLellin notebook," with information about and excerpts from a newly discovered notebook written by William E. McLellin, an early Mormon apostle who was later excommunicated from the Church (in 1838). It appears the notebook may have been the first draft of a book. The Salt Lake Tribune also ran a story on the manuscript, adding references to other previously published McLellin documents.

At Christianity Today (which bills itself as "a magazine of Evangelical conviction"), "The Evolution of Darwin," by none other than Dinesh D'Souza. The main point of the short article is that Darwin, the patron saint of the New Atheists, was at best a conflicted agnostic who, unlike the New Atheists, "did not boast about his unbelief; rather, he approached it with marked public caution."

Tom Hanks has modified his recent statement that Mormons are un-American for supporting Proposition 8 (see "Big Love producer sounds off on Prop 8"). Through a publicist, Hanks released a statement to People Magazine (is this the magazine of record for Hollywood types?) as follows: