Textual Studies of the Doctrine and Covenants: Plural Marriage Rev (D&C132) -podcast at Gospel Tangents

The other day I had a chance to sit down with Rick Bennett who operates the Gospel Tangents podcast. We talked about my new book on Doctrine and Covenants section 132. Rick’s a great interviewer and I hope I came across ok. Rick said that the episode may be out soon, so watch for that. I’ve done a couple of other interviews and there are a few more coming up. You can find Gospel Tangents here.

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Strengths and Weaknesses of Modern Missionaries

Here is an excerpt of a report by a General Authority who toured several LDS missions in the Southern and Eastern United States.

I can justifiably praise the humility, obedience, and on the whole, industry of the missionaries in these missions . . . but when these virtues are named, speaking of the missionaries as a whole, you name the sum of their qualifications for missionary work, and there are serious defects in their “equipment” for the work required of them; among which may be suggested first, the lack of knowledge amounting to almost total ignorance of the current religious thought of the present day, with a consequent lack of ability to make any application of our religion to modern thought, or what is of any immediate interest to people . . . the existence of a “boyish” conception of things . . . . inadequate education . . . not in terms of academic achievement as much as a lack of ability to read with ease the most common books, to speak grammatically, to say nothing of speaking coherently, logically or forcefully . . . there is a serious lack of training in simple “good manners” . . . on the whole, this reveals our deficiencies as a community on which is laid the responsibility of instructing the whole world in . . . moral and religious matters.[1]

Discuss.

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[1] Edited for length, a certain harshness, and with some silent summary.

Here’s a short Interview I did about the D&C 132 book.

Click and listen if you will: https://gregkofford.com/blogs/news/q-a-with-william-v-smith-for-em-textual-studies-of-the-doctrine-and-covenants-the-plural-marriage-revelation-em

George Laub and the Spiritual Roots of Human [Existence]

Yes, I went there. Nearly. George Laub (1814-1880) was an early Mormon convert who spent some time in Nauvoo. While there, he took notes of speeches by early leaders of the Church, including Joseph Smith. Laub left second order summaries of those notes in a little journal/reminiscence produced between 1845 and 1857.[1]

Jonathan Edwards Center Reception

Those of you within striking distance of New Haven may be interested.

The Jonathan Edwards Center has been given larger, newly renovated spaces by Yale Divinity School, and we invite you to a reception to help us celebrate and officially to open our new home. Please join us on February 22, 2018, 4:00-6:00 p.m., in the lower level of the northeast wing of the Divinity School. Attendees can enjoy refreshments, tour the facilities, meet our staff and research fellows, and view a special exhibit of original Edwards artifacts kindly provided by Rev. Robert Rafford of Middlebury, Connecticut. Door prizes include copies of Edwards volumes signed by the editors.

Please RSVP by February 15 to 2034325341.