A reader sent this in to us.

Check out the Utah organization using ‘Narnia’ to bring together
evangelicals and their Mormon neighbors.

http://www.standingtogether.org/

Quotation:

The following is a list of requirements to receive your 2 free tickets:
* You must be 18 years of age

* You must be an evangelical christian or a latter day saint

* If you are a evangelical christian, you must bring as your second ticket a latter day saint.

* If you are a latter day saint, you must bring as your second ticket a evangelical christian.

* Tickets will be abailable at will call starting at 6:15, and will be released after 6:45 to the stand-by list.

* Each set of friends will be given a page of questions to be discussed following the screening of the film and a survey card to be mailed back to Standing Together telling us your thoughts of the experience

Looks like a good thing to me, unless the questions are highly skewed. This is the group that Robert Millet co-presents with, so I doubt they’d be that way, but you never know.

My program is primarily a (dead) language program, but everyone in the department has to take a series of three history courses early on in 1) Syro-Palestine/Hittite History, 2)Egyptian History, and 3) Mesopotamian History. Those are the only history classes I’ve taken.

Most of my exams are language related, but I have a half-exam in Syro-Palestinian history, which means primarily Israelite history during the period of 1200-300, but also the history of Syria (Ebla, Alalakh, etc.) prior to that, as well as the relevant history of other civilizations that play a role there (ie. the Neo-Assyrians and Babylonians.)

For those interested, this is my book list to prepare from for this half-exam. Some of the books were just for particular sections, others are primarily reference books, and the technicality varies.

Continue reading →

It was a cool mid-December morning, and I’d just finished my final final of the semester (one of those cruel 7 a.m. finals). What a relief. A couple other roommates had returned from their 7 a.m. finals, and we found ourselves with five of our six roommates all in the apartment together with no place else to be for a couple more hours. This was rare, so we took advantage of it. Someone suggested we go to breakfast at the Denny’s restaurant behind our apartment complex.

Continue reading →

In my mission, were allowed to read nothing besides the scriptures and those few books in the “Missionary Library”. I have always been an avid reader, so having a very limited reading supply was one of my challenges as a missionary. I was an English-speaking missionary, so my gospel study time was not shortened by language study time. As a result, I read the scriptures and those few books many times over. This actually was not bad, but by the end of my mission, I was desperate for something else.

Continue reading →

M* recently asked the noted historian and author Richard Lyman Bushman to talk about his new book, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (Knopf, 2005). Jed Woodworth, an occasional commenter at M*, interviewed Professor Bushman, who graciously provided the answers to questions provided by Jed.

Comments are welcome. In between speaking engagements Professor Bushman may dip into the discussion on occasion.

You say in the preface that Rough Stone Rolling pays more attention to Joseph Smith’s religious thought than previous biographies. Was there some aspect of his thought that you ended up falling in love with much to your delight? Did any aspect repel you?

Plural marriage is hard for anyone who is happily married to understand, but it does not repel me as it does many Latter-day Saints.

Continue reading →