tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39679672011-09-30T12:45:24.308-04:00The Metaphysical EldersThoughts on Mormonism from some faithful and quirky elders pursuing fame, fortune, and education (at least until their wives say they have to get real jobs)The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comBlogger1901100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1091713782055812742004-08-05T09:42:00.000-04:002004-08-05T09:49:42.056-04:00MY LAST TALK: I gave this in Sacrament after my wife's talk a few months ago. The themes are largely passe', but I am just getting around the posting it. This may be the last ME posting... Maybe we'll rise like the Phoenix someday!
Reflections on the ward…
In the past year, two major items of popular culture have brought the world of early Christianity to the watercoolers of the nation. TGPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1087440391877563902004-06-16T22:43:00.000-04:002004-06-16T22:46:31.876-04:00MY WIFE'S TALK: This was given a few weeks ago as we spoke for the last time in our ward, on our last Sunday there. (I will post my talk soon too.)
"As it is our last Sunday in the Cambridge First ward, I feel beholden to offer some reflection on what I have gained during my time here. I would like to frame musings in the context of womanhood in the global church.
My tenure in the Cambridge TGPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1083089348728810702004-04-27T14:09:00.000-04:002004-04-28T09:26:54.250-04:00“One of the hottest tickets in New York right now is just off Broadway: a tour of a new Mormon temple. It's a rare glimpse of the architecture of a unique, often-misunderstood religion, a sense of the sacred expressed in light and mirrors and enveloping silence.”
This is how USA Today introduced what I consider to be an unusually graceful and insightful article which attempted to explain to New The Antiquarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00428023870018301976noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1082041512816353932004-04-15T11:05:00.000-04:002004-04-18T10:34:05.746-04:00TEMPLES AND ACADEMIC DIPLOMACY: Anyone in the NYC area around the first week of May might be interested in the following. Some of the more academically inclined members of the NY NY stake (spearheaded by the indomitable Dr. B.) decided to put together a conference on “sacred space in the modern city” to mark the opening of the new temple there. While we all enjoyed the Yale conference it was The Antiquarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00428023870018301976noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1081887423164748602004-04-13T16:17:00.000-04:002004-04-13T16:19:53.403-04:00LAW AND THE COMMANDMENTS: The Historians remarks below are interesting. The recourse to the ten commandments is interesting. In American history, attempts at "biblically based" law have been made, but they have always been eliminated in the end in favor of the common law. In part this is because the lawyers had a vested interest in maintaining the common law. In part it was because the The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1080792231687941732004-03-31T23:03:00.000-05:002004-03-31T23:24:48.140-05:00THE LORD OF SHABBAT- I must admit that I do not understand the fascination with the 10 Commandments as some sort of list of requirements for good living. I agree that some of them are a nice place to start for creating a civilized society: don't steal, don't lie, don't kill people, etc. However, the one that strikes me as the most strange and completely out of place as the basis of a social TGPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1079631957723778902004-03-18T12:45:00.000-05:002004-03-18T12:57:20.090-05:00A Wrong-Headed Question: In one of my recent debates with a fellow science graduate student, I was asked to comment on the following experiment. If we took 1,000 people with some condition, say cancer, and had a group of religionists pray for them, and took a control 1,000 people with the same condition but ensured that no one prayed for them, could we find empirical proof that God answers The Scientisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10904446896867820126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1078253957877698352004-03-02T13:59:00.000-05:002004-03-02T14:01:25.436-05:00I ENOCH AND ABRAHAM: I have to admit that I find the Historian’s arguments quite persuasive. I think that the current reading of the S&G story is rather late, and in many important respects misses the point of the original telling. The breaking of ritual norms of hospitality is really the key here. I believe that Nibley talks about this in ‘Abraham in Egypt’ and quite a few other places. And The Antiquarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00428023870018301976noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1078184578897389782004-03-01T18:42:00.000-05:002004-03-01T18:46:08.610-05:00THOU ALMOST PERSUADETH ME: I like the rape/hospitality interpretation that the Historian offers below, but I do have to take issue with the claim:The sin of S&G is that they want to transgress the laws of hospitality to strangers. In fact, this is the only sin that S&G are accused of committing in the Bible. I think that if you look at the New Testament, the meaning of the sin of S&G has taken onThe Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1078169396743345312004-03-01T14:29:00.000-05:002004-03-01T14:32:16.966-05:00SODOM AND GOMORRAH: Some recent discussions about Same-Sex Marriage have emphasized an apocalyptic disaster as a result of social wickedness. Many point to the promises in the Book of Mormon of a blessed land as long as the inhabitants are righteous. Others point to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18. I do not think that S&G are useful for making sense out of our current situation.TGPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1076636625324979242004-02-12T20:43:00.000-05:002004-02-12T21:45:47.983-05:00My answer to the Historian's query turned out to be too long for the comments section so I just decided to stick it up above. First off, thanks for the link to the article. I hadn't seen that yet. Not the best picture of President Belnap I've seen but overall a very favorable piece.
Secondly, I should point out that this Metaphysical Elder is only headed "behind the Zion the Curtain" because The Antiquarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00428023870018301976noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1076613782517689252004-02-12T14:23:00.000-05:002004-02-12T14:26:52.310-05:00ON COMING TO ZION: When I was in my early twenties, I never thought I would go back to Utah. I saw myself as a Mormon who was setting out on a reverse-pioneering mission. I was the only undergraduate at my college who was Mormon and I loved it. However, I was not alone as this NY Post article demonstrates. Perhaps we shouldn't be surpised at the surge in LDS populations in the East (mostly TGPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1076439343371095932004-02-10T13:55:00.000-05:002004-02-10T13:57:29.920-05:00The Antiquarian's post below is quite interesting. I hadn't realized that Quinn was being considered by the U. of U. I also hadn't realized that he had been hired there. Congratulations!
What makes the U. of U. interesting is that the normal town-and-gown tensions that you expect around a university get overlaid with a religious text. I never attended the U. of U. so I freely admitt that my The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1076081854661962062004-02-06T10:37:00.000-05:002004-02-06T10:43:34.860-05:00I recently saw something in the news that I thought might make for an interesting discussion. As some of you know I recently accepted an academic appointment at the University of Utah, so I have been following events on campus lately. The Salt Lake Tribune ran an article this morning which began with the following paragraph.
History teachers at the University of Utah see no "intellectual or The Antiquarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00428023870018301976noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1075859856302317942004-02-03T20:52:00.000-05:002004-02-03T20:59:16.106-05:00I am probably the last to read it, but I am working my way through The Metaphysical Club. I'm at the part contrasting William James and Henry James, his father. The elder James was a Swedenborg follower (more or less) and was vehemently against individualism. The younger James of pragmatism fame reacted against his father's views to adopt an individualism that even Peirce and his other friendsClark Goblenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1074870106847551862004-01-23T10:01:00.000-05:002004-01-23T10:03:15.983-05:00I'm very excited about reading the Book of Mormon this year in sunday school. One thing I love about the BofM is the way it sets up certain expectations and then deconstructs them. Racial profiles are the first example to spring to mind; another one is the importance of bloodlines. Nephi reviews the promises and covenants made to Abraham's seed, and writes about how the seed of his father The Scientisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10904446896867820126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1073979206990906612004-01-13T02:06:00.000-05:002004-01-13T02:34:45.530-05:00The Scientist and Clark Goble asked me to perhaps explain my apparently enigmatic comments of the previous week. Put succinctly the issue is that of information. Now we can view information statically, as the mere content of something's state. This might be for some particle its momentum, potential energy, spin, and so forth. For more complex entities we can have considerable more information. Clark Goblenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1073592708993961852004-01-08T15:11:00.000-05:002004-01-08T15:13:03.390-05:00THOUGHTS AND QUESTIONS FOR THE SCIENTIST: I have been meaning to comment on the Scientist's posts below on genetics and theology. This is some of the more interesting stuff that I have read in a long time. I have just three points/questions.
First, you think that modern biology will not a more holistic approach to studying genetics, etc. in order to get beyond the misleading DNA-->RNA-->Us The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1073505911582582202004-01-07T15:05:00.000-05:002004-01-08T14:57:22.043-05:00PHILO JUDAEUS AND ME- I have been rereading Armond Mauss' The Angel and the Behive. I am really quite enjoying it. The central sociological theory he employs is that religious groups oscillate between assimilation to the outside world and total rejection of it. At both ends of the spectrum the religious group in question risks annihilation, either by dissappearing into society or being crushedTGPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1073420498363216792004-01-06T15:21:00.000-05:002004-01-06T15:22:50.623-05:00THE STRANGE CAREER OF MORMON STRUCTURALISM: Talk to any Mormon intellectual these days (especially a conservative one) about the temple and the concept of "sacred space" will almost immediately come up. The idea enters our intellectual vocabulary via Nibley and has its origins in the work of Marcea Eliade, a Romanian religious anthropologist who lived his professional life at the University of The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1072849438719387332003-12-31T00:35:00.000-05:002003-12-31T00:48:16.890-05:00GENEALOGY VS. HISTORY - I've noticed that people discussing scriptures often confuse what one might choose to call the genealogy of the text with the history of the text. By genealogy I mean those events that led to the text being produced. I've noticed a distinctive trend among both Mormons and "foes" alike that assumes that the text ought to be taken on its own terms. In one sense I obviously Clark Goblenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1072678940219113002003-12-29T01:05:00.000-05:002003-12-29T01:24:16.780-05:00Ostler's view arises out of process philosophy, starting with Whitehead but more particularly developed by Hartshorne who was himself highly influenced by Peirce. The differences between these two thinkers are illuminating and often raise interesting issues. The overall framework of process theology I am more leery of, if only because of the implicit equating of God with the ouisa of the Clark Goblenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1072664742508234462003-12-28T21:25:00.000-05:002003-12-28T21:26:46.170-05:00Biology and God:
In his 1790 Critique of Judgment, Kant defined what he considered to be the essential properties of an organism (and was one of the first to use this idea with this new term): "an organized natural product is one in which every part is reciprocally both end and means... in such a natural product as this, every part is thought as owing its presence to the agency of all the The Scientisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10904446896867820126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1072456504838372852003-12-26T11:35:00.000-05:002003-12-26T11:36:05.856-05:00The Central Dogma of modern biology is wrong. Formulated in 1957 by Francis Crick, the idea that "DNA makes RNA, RNA makes protein, and proteins make us," guided molecular research in biology for nearly fifty years, yet from its first inception there were cracks in the edifice. Now it seems that emphasis on DNA and genes may actually be hindering progress in biology. But this knowledge has The Scientisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10904446896867820126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1072073198385996222003-12-22T01:06:00.000-05:002003-12-22T01:10:54.950-05:00The scientist writes well of the notion of Mormon eschatology. However ought we really say that Mormon eschatology emphasizes a "sameness" or "repetition of the same" over "difference"? I'd point out that, as discussed, Mormons speak of having their own world to create as they will. Further, unlike the more mystic forms of religion emphasizing the unio dei, Mormons believe salvation essential Clark Goblenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1072055426195883942003-12-21T20:10:00.000-05:002003-12-21T20:11:23.076-05:00G. HOMER DURHAM: I have to confess that I am not as familiar with John Taylor as I ought to be. Gospel Kingdom is a fun book, and I have read some of the "political" passages of the book. What I wonder is how much of that book is Taylor and how much is G. Homer Durham, who was the editor.
Generally, those who follow Mormon Studies are supposed to hiss when G. Homer Durham comes on stage. The The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1072043632234257252003-12-21T16:53:00.000-05:002003-12-21T16:57:40.873-05:00Pluralism in Mormon Theo-Democracy?
Mormon eschatology is often seen as absolutist, reducing all differences into sameness as we aim for a Zion society where all are of one heart and of one mind. Although we allow for the good of the eath to repent in the spirit world, we maintain that our ordinances are necessary for the highest degrees of salvation. The millenium is often seen in these same The Scientisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10904446896867820126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1071951315234027762003-12-20T15:05:00.000-05:002003-12-20T15:16:10.826-05:00The historian's dichotomy between "the gnostic" and "the kingdom" is interesting. He opposes them on the basis of salvation by knowledge (gnosis) and salvation by relationship (politia?). Without necessarily disagreeing with the historian's point, may I suggest a meaning intrinsic to his models that is at least as equally interesting? The gnostics didn't just emphasis knowledge, but gave Clark Goblenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1071806395554854332003-12-18T22:59:00.000-05:002003-12-18T23:02:27.280-05:00TWO THEOLOGIES- It seems that there are two general trends in Mormon soteriological theology. Let me characterize them by means of two typologies: Gnostic and Kingdom. Let me emphasize that I don't think that these have any historical instantiations, nor are the categories thought out very well. Rather, they represent trends or types of thought. The Gnostic view places much emphasis on TGPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1071597642129652342003-12-16T13:00:00.000-05:002003-12-16T13:01:33.826-05:00ALL ABOUT US: It seem that we are both mysterious and insightful. It is interesting to see the gradual evolution of this blog. It began as just an extension of our lunch discussions. However, it seems that with geographic distance it has become more public. Also, it seems like in the year since we founded our mystical and sacred order that the Mormon corner of the blogosphere has grown The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1071174827262903032003-12-11T15:33:00.000-05:002003-12-11T15:34:33.653-05:00I think that there is something to this link, but I don't think that it does to make too much of it. I don't think that there is any necessary connnection. A while back, a guy wrote a book (can't remember the name) arguing that textualism in biblical and constitutional interpretation were linked. It didn't hold up too well. It may be that a commitment to various methods of interpretation is The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1071164780363152342003-12-11T12:46:00.000-05:002003-12-11T12:47:54.623-05:00POLITICS AND HERMENEUTICS- The recent posts on Iron Rods and Liahonas, and "active" and "contemplative" Mormons have been very interesting. It reminds me of another issue. Is there a relationship between fundamentalist/inerrantist scriptural hermeneutics and conservative politics, and conversly post-modernist hermeneutics and liberal politics? The Religious Right seems to beleive so. They areTGPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1071109304797859132003-12-10T21:21:00.000-05:002003-12-10T21:22:30.590-05:00A few more thoughts on the question of whether Mormonism encourages "active" vs "contemplative" career choices. What I was trying to say in my earlier post regarding Prof. Ulrich's remark was simply that we shouldn't overgeneralize from one person's anecdotal evidence, especially when we have reason to suspect that she may have overlooked students in other wards and disciplines. After all, she The Scientisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10904446896867820126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1071072170254495442003-12-10T11:02:00.000-05:002003-12-10T11:03:35.903-05:00I read the Poll essay a long time ago, and I think that I share the Scientist's reaction to it. I think that Poll himself was trying to argue that both ways of being Mormon are legitimate, but most folks I have run into who are fond of the image set it up as a hierarchy, with Liahona's being better than Iron Rodders, who we can condescendingly agree are necessary to make things run but whom we The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1070943539245517132003-12-08T23:18:00.000-05:002003-12-08T23:19:43.186-05:00The distinction that the Historian brings up was first described in a Dialogue article in 1967 by Richard Poll. A sloppy online version can be found here. It is an immensely popular idea and has been the basis of many Dialogue articles since then; the original essay has been republished in several collections including A Thoughtful Faith and Personal Voices. Personally I have not found the The Scientisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10904446896867820126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1070933888166065822003-12-08T20:38:00.000-05:002003-12-08T20:39:30.810-05:00LIAHONAS AND IRON RODS- Recently, my bishop characterized members of my ward as falling into roughly two camps: those who follow the Liahona and those who follow the Iron Rod. I don't know if he came up with it himself, or if it comes from somewhere else, but I really liked it. Those who follow the Iron Rod tend to have a clear picture of the church and the right way to do things, a solid line TGPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1070331171956325362003-12-01T21:12:00.000-05:002003-12-01T21:13:29.030-05:00For what it is worth, your letter and the tussle on Times & Seasons produced the most traffic to the Metaphysical Elders' site of any post in the long and storied history of our blog. Congratulations!The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1070315507012198762003-12-01T16:51:00.000-05:002003-12-01T20:26:55.890-05:00MY PROFESSOR UPDATE- The letter has been read by my professor. S/he just called me and told me that s/he has no interest in getting involved in an inter-necine polemic and that s/he would give them an earful about the "textaul transmission of the Holy, Sacred, New Testament." Whew.TGPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1069868275449424832003-11-26T12:37:00.000-05:002003-11-26T12:52:16.763-05:00INTELLECTUALLY DISHONEST??- The letter to my professor has sparked an interesting discussion at the Times and Seasons blog. The discussion has mostly focused on my claim that "Informed Mormons have shown for over sixty years on the basis of the Book of Mormon text itself that it does not teach that Native Americans are descended from Israelite origin". Kaimi Wenger has accused me of being TGPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1069801641847494122003-11-25T18:07:00.000-05:002003-11-25T18:07:52.903-05:00This is an extremely well thought out letter. I am impressed. I hadn't heard the point about 19th century meanings of the word "translate." I am curious as to whether you know of any 19th century Mormons using the term in this sense. I am thinking of Joseph's discussion of the accuracy of various Bible translations in the King Follett Discourse. He seems to be talking about linguistic The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1069783730505137472003-11-25T13:08:00.000-05:002003-11-25T13:35:09.186-05:00LIVING HOPE MINISTRY- One of my professors of New Testament was recently contacted by Living Hope Ministry about participating in a video about the textual transmission of the Bible directed against contradicting Mormon claims. He has tentatively agreed, but he asked my opinion and wanted to know more about the project. I just finished writing him a letter, presented here.
November 25, 2003
TGPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1069381404670503612003-11-20T21:23:00.000-05:002003-11-20T21:23:50.670-05:00ANGELS (AND MORMONS) IN AMERICA: Andrew Sullivan has a take down here of recent crooning at the New York Times about HBOs forthcoming production of Tony Kurshner's Angels in America. Angles is a play that chronicles the AIDS epedemic in the 1980s, and won a Pulitzer Prize in the 1990s.
What is interesting to me is that the play has a Mormon character (to be played on HBO by Patrick Wilson) -- aThe Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1068872475821095672003-11-15T00:01:00.000-05:002003-11-15T00:01:36.390-05:00Let me see if I can get my plodding brain around the Literary Critics polysyllabic ode and aria. Mormons like to say things like, "I know that Mormonism is true as surely as I know that I am standing here today." The point of the statement is that religious knowledge is assimilated wholly into "regular" knowledge and all notion of religious mystery or other worldly transcendence is banished by The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1068861571916715052003-11-14T20:25:00.000-05:002003-11-14T20:59:51.560-05:00Since nobody has seemed to bite on my prior post, I will follow the Antiquarian's incredibly important line of inquiry. Making Mormonism an independent variable is exactly what I was awkwardly trying to express in my blog on Givens's talk. To make Mormonism more relevant we need to demonstrate its dialogical relation to other discourses rather than its exceptional insularity from them. We needThe Literary Critichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08046640598860712805noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1068840248128868132003-11-14T15:04:00.000-05:002003-11-14T15:04:28.293-05:00I agree with a large part of what the Antiquarian writes below. In particular, I agree with him that we should do more to use Mormonism as a way of providing perspectives on issues of general intellectual interest. For example, I know that Mormon law professors are invited from time to time to symposia, etc. where they are asked to provide a Mormon take on some issue -- abortion, corporate The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1068830568439487792003-11-14T12:22:00.000-05:002003-11-15T15:16:23.170-05:00Why is Mormonism always the Dependent Variable?
I did not have the opportunity to attend Given’s talk which I quite regret. Thanks for the summaries of it presented bellow. I must say that I like Given’s scholarship quite a bit. However, I’m not as enamored of his views on some subjects (say the differences between the Bible and Book of Mormon) as many seem to be at the moment. However his The Antiquarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00428023870018301976noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1068763946060284742003-11-13T16:23:00.000-05:002003-11-14T09:51:48.810-05:00I also had the privilege of attending Terryl Givens's lecture the other night at the Harvard Divinity School and wanted to post my inchoate impressions. I must say that I adore Givens's argument about the nature of the Mormon heresy. His contention that the Mormon heretical difference resides in its radical collapse of the unbridgeable distance between humanity and divinity, between the The Literary Critichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08046640598860712805noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1068650071519894002003-11-12T10:14:00.000-05:002003-11-12T11:07:36.646-05:00ME? EDGY?: Apparently there are people out in the big wide world who read this blog. A bit frightening, eh? Dave’s Mormon Inquiry Weblog after a bit of complimentary (and therefore entirely accurate) discussion of my last post had this to say:Particularly edgy is his critique of Mormon intellectual troublemakers as reenacting the "modern intellectual creation myth" of Galileo versus the Church,The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1068439650144321502003-11-09T23:47:00.000-05:002003-11-10T10:51:50.166-05:00I am not sure if there is a way of ever totally escaping the problem laid out by the Historian. Givens is a good example. The New York Times review of Givens's book discussed it has it as a straight forward but scholarly defense of the Book of Mormon. In contrast, on a recent NPR program out of Salt Lake, Givens was misidentified as a non-Mormon scholar and was brought in as the neutral third The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1068242118608160272003-11-07T16:55:00.000-05:002003-11-07T16:55:16.923-05:00Last night Terryl Givens spoke at the Harvard Divinity School. He was chosen to speak by the HDS Latter-day Saint Society because of his reputation as a good scholar and the respect he has from faithful Latter-day Saints. This balance isn’t so easy to find. There are many successful Mormon scholars who are well respected within their field. But when they have something to say about Mormonism,TGPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1067982022829472202003-11-04T16:40:00.000-05:002003-11-04T16:40:21.113-05:00THE EGAN CASE: The Journal of Discourses, that glorious bubbling mass of untamed theological matter, contains in its first volume the account of a trial. (See JD 1:95-103) The trial occurred during the 1851 October Term of the Territorial Court in Salt Lake City. Howard Egan murdered a man named James Monroe who had stayed the winter in Utah on his way to California. While sojourning among theThe Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1067017339604011792003-10-24T13:42:00.000-04:002003-10-24T13:42:19.070-04:00JESUS IN FILM- CNN reports that members of the cast of Mel Gibson's Passion keep getting struck by lightning. It must be because of the film's gross historical innaccuracies!TGPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1065796993189437852003-10-10T10:43:00.000-04:002003-10-10T10:43:12.903-04:00MORMONS AND PURITANS: I have been doing a bit of reading of late on Puritan theories of natural law. Obviously, there are lots and lots of parellels between Puritanism and Mormonism, but I ran into one that I thought was particularlly striking. In 1659, a Puritan by the name of John Eliot wrote a book entitled The Christian Commonwelath; or, The Civil Policy of the Rising Kingdom of Jesus The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1065628847513844872003-10-08T12:00:00.000-04:002003-10-10T10:10:06.256-04:00MORMON FEMINISM- Peggy Fletcher Stack just published an article in the SL Trib titled "Where have all the Mormon Feminists Gone?" located here. You all should read it all the way through...I think you'll be surprised at how close we are to the heartbeat of Mormon feminism! The article describes the changing face of Mormon feminism throughout the church's history. Most significant is that it TGPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1065279078187152662003-10-04T10:51:00.000-04:002003-10-06T16:47:47.203-04:00Esteemed Elders,
It has been too long. Once again I apologize for not having frequented these halls more often. I would like to thank the Lawyer for posting the link to Loomis’ paper. The statistical issues involved in forecasting are certainly interesting. However, the biggest theoretical problem that one faces is not in the math (barring complex interaction effects and the like), but The Antiquarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00428023870018301976noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1065038327922329552003-10-01T15:58:00.000-04:002003-10-01T18:05:50.343-04:00WHY ZION HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH JUSTICE: I have been thinking about Zion and the concept of justice. I have reached a provisional conclusion that they have nothing to do with each other. Here is my argument:
Justice is a virtue that regulates social relationships. Solipsists need not be just, nor do those who live alone on distant islands. However, justice is not a virtue that regulates all The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1064591316417181392003-09-26T11:48:00.000-04:002003-09-26T11:48:36.070-04:00THE SLOWING OF CHURCH GROWTH: Check out this paper presented in 2002 at the Association for the Sociology of the Religion. I expect that only our Scientist and the Antiquarian (who moonlights as an economist, I am told) can actually walk through all of the statistical analysis. However, even for those inclined to the humanities this is definitely worth the read. Just skim over the statistical The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1063068170022134582003-09-08T20:42:00.000-04:002003-09-15T17:55:53.700-04:00A FUN RESOURCE: Since y'all don't have enough to read, I thought that I would pass on an interesting new source of stuff to read. BYU Library has put all of the Master's Thesises submitted to the university on the topic of Mormonism on-line. All of them seem to have been scanned, and they are available in PDF format. What is more, they are text searchable. The problem here is that each page The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1062450657006117082003-09-01T17:10:00.000-04:002003-09-01T17:10:57.060-04:00SCHOLARLY INFLUENCE?: In the 1981 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Church added for the first time an appendix to the Manifesto entitled “Excerpts from Three Addresses by President Wilford Woodruff Regarding the Manifesto,” in which President Woodruff states that the Manifesto was issued at least in large part to protect the temples from confiscation and desecration by federal officialsThe Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1062089663122544552003-08-28T12:54:00.000-04:002003-08-28T12:54:23.050-04:00Flavors of determinism
I have held off on addressing the Lawyer's apparent case of determinism in Marshall's decision to prohibit corporate advocacy. Partly this is because I am still looking at both sides of the compatibilist debate and poking holes, and haven't worked out a coherent view for myself. And partly this is because I think that the confusion of social and political freedom with The Scientisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10904446896867820126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1061993712684842592003-08-27T10:15:00.000-04:002003-08-27T10:15:12.750-04:00ACADEMIC FAMILIES AND THEORIES OF SALVATION: I find the Scientist's sociological musings on the family very interesting. All I can say is that he encourages me to rejoice that I have (for the time being at least) left the halls of academe for the family friendly world of the legal profession. (Hah!) I do find that Nibley's workaholic lifestyle was coupled with his frequently withering The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1061950215047971862003-08-26T22:10:00.000-04:002003-08-26T22:10:15.116-04:00"Are Mormons Theists?"
-- asks A. A. Howsepian in his article in Religious Studies 32 p357 (1996). His answer, much to the delight of our Literary Critic, is that Mormons are in fact not monotheists or polytheists as advertised, but practice a sophisticated form of atheism. "None of the individual entities in a traditional Mormon ontology qualifies as being a genuine God, and the entire The Scientisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10904446896867820126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1061950167979379352003-08-26T22:09:00.000-04:002003-08-26T22:09:27.983-04:00Family and Academia
I've skimmed briefly the new biography of Hugh Nibley by his son in law, who candidly admits that Nibley was a workaholic who spent little if any time with his children after they were toddlers, with very weak emotional connections, leaving his family with some hard feelings about 'dad.' This comes at the same time as I am home with my new daughter and two and a half year The Scientisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10904446896867820126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1061595482968022652003-08-22T19:38:00.000-04:002003-08-22T19:38:02.936-04:00THE KANT OF THE CLERK: Over lunch this week, the Clerk mentioned to me that he has a Kantian take on the liberal-ontology/communitarian-teleology theory of Mormonism. He sees the same tension getting worked out in Kant's philosophy with the contrast between the transcendental ego and the kingdom of ends. I can only hope that he will elaborate on this for us...The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1061595356482518042003-08-22T19:35:00.000-04:002003-08-22T19:35:56.450-04:00CONGRATULATIONS!: I just saw the new addition to the Scientist's family. Very cute little girl! I hope that Sister Scientist is doing well. Congratulations!The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1061578795941282952003-08-22T14:59:00.000-04:002003-08-22T14:59:55.796-04:00A QUICK, IGNORANT, RESPONSE: First for the record, I argue that Mormonism has a "liberal" ontology, not a "libertarian" ontology. I am not sure if this is significant, but my version does have fewer syllables. I agree with the Scientist that libertarian free will, at least as propounded by Ostler, does have a difficult time providing a good account of character.
I have spent very little time The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1061173121067273372003-08-17T22:18:00.000-04:002003-08-17T22:21:04.286-04:00WARNING! Long-winded metaphysical ranting on freedom! Proceed with caution!
The question of metaphysical freedom does not have a great hold on most people's minds. Fatalism is not compelling and in the end we deliberate and act under the idea of freedom anyway, so what is the point of debating whether a strong contra-causal (or libertarian) concept of free-will is right? Blake Ostler The Scientisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10904446896867820126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1061069439072599212003-08-16T17:30:00.000-04:002003-08-16T17:30:39.050-04:00A MORMON POLITICAL PRAYER: Here is something that I ran across doing some research here in Utah. I am looking at some of the wierd religion provisions of the Utah State Constitution. In studying the records of the state constitutional convention, I found this prayer, offered by George Q. Cannon at the opening session of the convention:
Our Eternal Father, we approach Thee in the name of Thy SonThe Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1060614397969334992003-08-11T11:06:00.000-04:002003-08-11T11:06:37.993-04:00A NEW JOB: I have been asked by the Journal of Law and Religion to be a peer reviewer with an emphasis in -- surprise! surprise! -- Mormonism. I can only hope that they actually get some manuscripts on the topic!The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1060491679369102772003-08-10T01:01:00.000-04:002003-08-10T01:01:19.250-04:00POLICY, LEGITIMACY, AND NATURAL LAW: I will respond to just a couple of the issues raised by the Scientist in his post below. First, the issue of natural law. I don't think that a kind of Thomistic natural law based on a teleological conception of nature is available within Mormonism. At the very least, I think that our concept of God and creation precludes utilizing these arguments The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1060101577891976102003-08-05T12:39:00.000-04:002003-08-05T12:42:51.133-04:00The recent coverage in the press of the gay marriage controversy has raised some questions in my mind. Since some of these questions have somewhat metaphysical implications, and the church has come down strongly against gay marriage, it seems an appropriate metaphysical elders topic even though it is so political.
What sparked my interest is the Pope's statement that homosexuality is against The Scientisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10904446896867820126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1059020262291607382003-07-24T00:17:00.000-04:002003-07-24T00:42:03.730-04:00EXCOMMUNICATIONS: Sunstone has posted two essays online by Lavina Fielding Andersen and Armand Mauss discussing "ecclesiastical abuse." FYI.The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1058985816469181052003-07-23T14:43:00.000-04:002003-07-23T14:57:08.896-04:00AN EARLY EXAMPLE OF BAD LEGAL ADVICE:
The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1058972940261716822003-07-23T11:09:00.000-04:002003-07-23T11:20:54.716-04:00HELLENISM AND APOSTACY: As the Historian points out, the dominate way in which LDS intellectuals these days conceptualize the Great Apostacy is as the Hellenistic take over for Christianity. I actually think that this idea is on the ebb. For example, no less a place of Nibley-centricism than FARMS has published articles attacking the thesis. (See, e.g., Dan Graham & James Siebach, "Philosophy The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1058916624823145152003-07-22T19:30:00.000-04:002003-07-22T19:30:24.793-04:00ESSENTIALISM: I was struck by the Historian's thoughtfulness in his recent post (not because it was uncharacteristically thoughtful, but rather because he was especially characteristically thoughtful). A cost/benefit analysis of essentialism is in order. As noted, the chief virtue of essentialism is its rhetorical force in mobilizing and motivating people to achieve specific objectives. The Literary Critichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08046640598860712805noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1058854278322288902003-07-22T02:11:00.000-04:002003-07-22T02:11:18.350-04:00IDENTITY AND SUBSTANCE: There is far too much in the Historian's post below for me to respond to right now, especially since I am deeply immersed in the mysteries of Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code. (When does an insurable interest in goods promised but not yet tendered arise?) However, my intuition is that whatever the temptations of rejecting essences altogether may be, we probably The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1058734929689233702003-07-20T17:02:00.000-04:002003-07-20T17:04:03.260-04:00ADOLF VON HARNACK In a discussion about anti-Judaism in the scriptures in church last week, I was asked rather directly whether I believed that the scriptures were political documents or divinely inspired texts. Admittedly I was somewhat shocked by the question and I answered it badly. I tried to respond by asking why the person was making such a distinction. Why must there be an either/or? TGPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1058499705641843742003-07-17T23:41:00.000-04:002003-07-17T23:41:45.560-04:00A PILGRIM IN MY OWN LAND: I have been meaning to blog something about being in Utah after spending several years in the East (aka Babylon). Jacob and I have been spening our sunday mornings wandering around Salt Lake looking for obscure Mormon stuff. So far we have found several interesting spots. Our first sunday we went to the grave of Brigham Young. Interestingly, it is a blank granite The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1058042649378396112003-07-12T16:44:00.000-04:002003-07-12T16:44:24.676-04:00WE'RE FAMOUS! (SORT OF): The Metaphysical Elders has been selected as one of About.com's featured picks for LDS themed blogs. Check out the list here. The way I see it, it is only a few short steps from here to total world domination!The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1057608493609360552003-07-07T16:08:00.000-04:002003-07-07T16:08:13.700-04:00HERMENEUTICALLY USEFUL?: Check out Dallin Oaks, "Scripture Reading and Revelation," Ensign, January, 1995. It seems to be at least obliquely related to our current discussion. (Link courtsey the LDS-PHIL list)The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1057423593148368562003-07-05T12:46:00.000-04:002003-07-05T12:46:33.170-04:00First a final belated farewell to the Lawyer, who first awakened me from my dogmatic slumber, and opened my eyes to the opportunities and possibilities in thinking about Mormonism and the world through Mormon perspectives. The praises by my fellow Elders are surely appropriate regarding his sweeping ambition and talents, but perhaps more importantly he is a good friend, willing to lend us 3 eggsThe Scientisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10904446896867820126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1057086617844230802003-07-01T15:10:00.000-04:002003-07-01T15:10:17.910-04:00LORD COKE RIDES AGAIN: A while back I blogged a little bit about Sir Edward Coke's idea of the artifical reason of the law and how one might use it to understand the idea of cosmic law within Mormonism. (My original posts are here and here.) Interestingly, a related issue came up in the Supreme Court's recent sodomy case, Lawrence v. Texas. I posted about it over at A Good Oman. Enjoy!The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1056769093909324432003-06-27T22:58:00.000-04:002003-06-27T23:22:08.186-04:00I have been thinking about the Historian's questions recently. Obviously I have never considered the issue of LDS voice in NT commentaries, but I suppose that there is probably some traditional Mormon aesthetic or 'flavor' that can be captured. (Unlike the other lectura of our most ancient and honorable invisible college I will not presume to speak of hermeneutics.) I suspect that at the The Antiquarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00428023870018301976noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1056694957371388182003-06-27T02:22:00.000-04:002003-06-27T02:38:42.440-04:00REASONING IN GOD'S PRESENCE: Your praises and farwells are far, far too kind. I will miss y'all as well. The Literary Critic -- who is not irrelevant (poetically or otherwise) -- makes the claim that hermeneutic theory is always subservient to revelatory praxis in Mormonism. It strikes me that the praxis is not only revelatory but also discursive.
Think of a curmugeonly high priests' group The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1056677151149965922003-06-26T21:25:00.000-04:002003-06-26T21:25:51.130-04:00I also bid a fond farewell to the Lawyer. Your physical presence will be sorely missed (it's all about bodies, right?). While I think you may have come to consider me as poetically irrelevant (probably not an unfair judgement!), I have come to consider you as vitally significant to any Mormon intellectual hope. I thank you for your great thoughts and generous spirit. I will look forward--The Literary Critichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08046640598860712805noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1056424352345810462003-06-23T23:12:00.000-04:002003-06-23T23:12:32.413-04:00MORMON ART: I don't know that I have a good answer to the Historian's question. (Actually, I know that I don't have a good answer.) However, I am not one to let ignorance or the absence of something of value to say keep my mouth shut. Also, I want to encourage blogging.
It strikes me that my father has spent his entire professional life grappling with a similar question, namely "What is The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1056402721002305342003-06-23T17:12:00.000-04:002003-06-23T23:13:23.203-04:00A MORMON HERMENEUTIC: I recently posted a version of the following message to a group of LDS graduate students in religion. I post it here in order to solicit thoughts from the Elders on this topic that has long plagued me. It has been brought to the fore recently as a result of a new seminar at BYU this summer that is producing LDS commentaries and articles on the New Testament. The note is TGPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1056402546742086072003-06-23T17:09:00.000-04:002003-06-23T17:09:06.823-04:00FAREWELLS: I wish to bid to fondest possible farewell to the Lawyer. His departure will no doubt be felt deeply in our midst for a long time to come. He has had a profound impact on my own thinking and will no doubt have a profound impact on many more disciples. I have every confidence that one day we will all be indebted to his insights into many key Mormon topics. In the not too distant TGPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-1056333274156519932003-06-22T21:54:00.000-04:002003-06-22T21:54:34.003-04:00A PERSONAL NOTE: Tonight is my last night in Cambridge so bear with me while I engage in a bit of self-indulgent reflection. Four years ago I was trying to figure out which law school to attend. In the end my choices came down to Harvard or Chicago. I spoke with lots of people and solicited lots of advice. I was even lucky enough to be able to talk with Elder Oaks. (He favored Chicago but The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-951928642003-06-02T10:48:00.000-04:002003-06-02T10:48:45.136-04:00APOCAPLYPSE AND POLITICAL THEORY: I have been thinking a bit more of late about my essay on Mormon political theory that we discussed a while back. As you may remember, I made the argument that Mormonism had an essentialy liberal set of ontological commitments and an essentially communitarian set of teleological commitments. It occurs to me that the relative emphasis is tied to one's The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-950019102003-05-28T15:31:00.000-04:002003-05-28T15:31:59.513-04:00THE DARK SIDE OF (POST-) MORMON PRAGMATISM: It looks as though FARMS is finally going to be publishing my piece on secret combinations. This afternoon as I was doing some final research for the paper in Wiedner, I came across an interesting old Dialogue article on Mark Hoffman's relationship with the "New Mormon History." Interestingly, the article sketched out Hoffman's own assessment of his The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-948373692003-05-24T16:17:00.000-04:002003-05-26T21:56:08.000-04:00Meaning
During the first three centuries of the Christian era those who refused to deny the name of Jesus and sacrifice at the Roman altars were tortured until they either broke under pressure or mercifully passed out of this life. The persecutions were sporadic but intense. In 251 there was a systematic attempt to destroy Christianity by making everyone in the empire sacrifice to the Roman The Scientisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10904446896867820126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-936138122003-05-01T16:17:00.000-04:002003-05-01T16:17:41.143-04:00I still need to mull over what the Scientist has said below, but let my add just one thought. It is worth noting that the developments that Brooke seems to assign to the post-Darwinianian nineteenth century ideas that were on the move well before Darwin. Aguste Comte was pushing for a religion of Reason and Science in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Also, there is at least The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-927934532003-04-17T15:00:00.000-04:002003-05-01T15:38:40.000-04:00Cartoon from Punch, 5 June 1880. Brown (a mild agnostic, in reply to Smith, a rabid Evolutionist, who has been asserting the doctrines of his school with unnecessary violence): "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian."
I've recently read a chapter in John H. Brooke's _Science and Religion_ on evolutionary theory and religious belief. Brooke is a historian of science at Oxford and in this The Scientisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10904446896867820126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-927926152003-04-17T14:43:00.000-04:002003-04-17T14:48:53.000-04:00The mormon religion celebrates bodies. While it is true that our mortal bodies are subject to suffering, pain, and death, they are also a constant source of joy. Without them how could we experience the wonders of the corporeal world: the sounds of Bach choral music, the wonderous color red (sorry Lawyer) of my living room wall, the pleasure of basking in the sun on a beach in Rio, the awe of The Scientisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10904446896867820126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-927169392003-04-16T10:35:00.000-04:002003-04-16T10:35:32.013-04:00"AND I STILL HAVEN'T FOUND WHAT I AM LOOKING FOR...": The Scientist's post is interesting, but it does make me think of U2. The Clerk poses the question of why bodies are cool and argues that they can't be easily justified with postmodern triumphalism about locatedness. The Scientist offers us another potential cause for celebration: a solution to the pesky mind-body problem. Cartesian dualismThe Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-927150442003-04-16T10:00:00.000-04:002003-04-16T10:00:19.403-04:00HISTORICAL PROGRESS: I am glad to see that at least the Historian is coming around to seeing the Platonism as being insidious. This is progress. We may be able to save him from the flesh pots of Athens (or perhaps Alexandria?) yet! It seems that there are two strands to his screed that can be seperated out. One is that our physical bodies are not so cool because they are transitory, decay, The Lawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16827086515162302487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-926748532003-04-15T17:38:00.000-04:002003-04-16T10:37:27.000-04:00So what is so great about the body anyway? Ah yes, it is 'postmodern,' it is 'hermetic'. But it isn't exaclty these things either... In fact, our body isn't really 'ours' at all. This body is the dust of the earth. There is nothing uniquely "me" about the material that consititutes my body at present. In fact, 7 years for now that material will be entirely replaced. The essence of me is TGPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-926739342003-04-15T17:20:00.000-04:002003-04-15T17:20:56.140-04:00Happy birthday to the Lawyer and to the name-to-be-determined Baby Litcrit!TGPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967967.post-926265542003-04-14T23:30:00.000-04:002003-04-16T10:00:43.000-04:00Musings on materialism:
The Clerk has raised one of my favorite questions: Why is it that we currently possess a flesh and blood body? It seems that our theology values bodies of the fleshly material sort, ascribing one to God and Christ (or rather two--one to each!), and insisting that those who followed Lucifer will be forever damned in their progression. Bodies are a principle of power. IThe Scientisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10904446896867820126noreply@blogger.com