Sic Et Non

  I’m very pleased to report that video- and audio recordings of the recent Interpreter Foundation conference on “Abraham and His Family in Scripture, History, and Tradition” — which was held on the campus of Brigham Young University on two successive Saturdays (3 May 2025 and 10 May 2025) — are now available on the […]

  Two new items went up today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Come, Follow Me — Doctrine and Covenants Study and Teaching Helps (2025) — Doctrine and Covenants 51–57, May 26 – June 1: “A Faithful, a Just, and a Wise Steward”  Jonn Claybaugh has generously supplied another concise set of notes for […]

  Today, we entered the area known as the Staffordshire Potteries, which is particularly associated in Latter-day Saint history with the missionary labors of Wilford Woodruff. First, we visited World of Wedgwood in Stoke-on-Trent.  It is the headquarters and principal factory of Waterford Wedgwood Royal Doulton, an English manufacturer of fine china, porcelain, and luxury […]

  After leaving the Lake District yesterday afternoon, our group drove through Milnthorpe, where John Taylor is generally thought to have been born in 1808.  We also visited the house in Beetham, near Milnthorpe, where his parents, James and Agnes Taylor ,lived and in which John grew up.  He emigrated to Canada in 1832, where, […]

  Our group headed up to the Lake District today, devoting much of our time to William Wordsworth (1770-1850) and to his wife, Mary, and his sister, Dorothy, who were both very important elements of his life and his creativity.  It might seem odd that a tour focused on Latter-day Saint history should devote the […]

  We met up with Kris Frederickson, a member of the Interpreter Foundation board and an organizer and co-host of this Interpreter Church history tour of England and then went to meet our motor coach and our local guide and friend, Peter Fagg, and the rest of our group — save two, who didn’t arrive […]

  My wife and I spent multiple hours yesterday, Wednesday, scouting out the glorious British Museum.  My usual strategy there over the years has been to try to see every room.  By the end of the day, my head is splitting and I’m no longer enjoying it, but I’m determined to visit each and every […]

  New, on the blog of the Interpreter Foundation, where nothing ever changes: “The Heartland Versus Mesoamerica, Part 5: The Narrow Strip of Wilderness,” written by Brant A. Gardner. As a small constituent part of a long-term project that I’m working on, I’ll be extracting notes over the next several weeks or (more likely) months […]

  From the “Sometimes, You Can Only Laugh” Department:  As usual on such occasions, I didn’t sleep on the non-stop trans-Atlantic flight from Salt Lake City to London.  Instead, I read Agatha Christie’s first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, in which she first introduced the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot — I can’t recall having […]

  Back in 2022, in preparation for the launch of our Six Days in August film project (which continues with our series of forthcoming Becoming Brigham documentary short features, currently in production), I reread Eugene England, Brother Brigham (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1980) and, as on my two previous readings of the book, really enjoyed […]

  I was browsing last night in W. H. Lewis, ed., Letters of C. S. Lewis (New York and London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1966), when I came across the following passage, which I don’t recall having ever noticed before.  It’s an excerpt from a letter “To a Lady” (otherwise unidentified by the editor) that is […]

  Although I can’t honestly recommend the presentation that began at 1:35 PM this afternoon, I’ll make this overall comment otherwise:  If you didn’t come to the Tanner Building at BYU today and you didn’t listen online, you missed some really interesting material.  Here is the program for today’s second and concluding session — Saturday, […]

  These four new items were posted today on the moribund website of the comatose Interpreter Foundation: Anachronisms: Accidental Evidence in Book of Mormon Criticisms: Chapter 2 “Warfare in the Book of Mormon,” written by Matthew Roper [Editor’s Note: We are pleased to present chapter 2 from a book entitled Anachronisms: Accidental Evidence in Book […]

  Newly posted on the blog of the perpetually unchanging, completely comatose website of the Interpreter Foundation: “My Favorite Chiasm in the Book of Mormon,” written by Mark Skousen The Temple: Plates, Patterns, & Patriarchs: “Jacob’s Temple Journey to Haran and Back,” written by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw and Matthew L. Bowen Part of our book […]

  We spent another solid day today filming for the Interpreter Foundation’s forthcoming Becoming Brigham series of short documentaries, this time doing indoor “studio” conversations at a home in Pleasant Grove.  I think that we captured some good discussions, and I’m looking forward to eventually making these materials public.  I hope and I believe that […]

  Details regarding the approaching 2025 FAIR conference can be found here.  I hope to see you there, although it’s very likely that I won’t be speaking on the topic that’s currently listed for me online.  I’m not even sure where that title came from.  Did I suggest it?  If I did, I don’t remember […]

  We conducted a very good series of lengthy and substantial interviews today at the Church History Library, which sits directly to the east of the Conference Center, directly to the northeast of Temple Square.  The interviews, of course, are for the Interpreter Foundation’s forthcoming series of short video features, which are being produced under […]

  I wrote the other day regarding the approval of a temple in Texas about which considerable and acrimonious controversy has swirled.  (See “Quick Thoughts Occasioned by the Fairview Texas Temple.”)  I’ve received some email responses to my position and I’ve seen some online reactions to the agreement that has evidently been reached, and I […]

  I’m obviously very late with calling attention to them — see below for the reason behind my delay — but these items went up on the website of the Interpreter Foundation on Friday afternoon, and I heartily commend them to your attention.  Two of them appear in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith […]

  Bukhara and Samarkand, where I’ve spent pretty much the past week, lie in what the West has long called Transoxiana (roughly, “beyond the [River] Oxus”).  The name was first coined by Alexander the Great [“the Great”!) — or, anyway, by somebody in his entourage, in the fourth century BC.  I’ve always been amused by […]