Sunstone Magazine: An Appreciation and New Vision In my first three months at Sunstone, I have learned many interesting things about the magazine’s 25-year evolution. I have also begun to sense new directions for next years. I look forward to discussing with everyone interested in contributing to the magazine’s vision and pages. Dan Wotherspoon, Janet …
Speaker: Dan Wotherspoon
A New ‘Lost’ Generation? The Future of Mormon Scholarship
A New ‘Lost’ Generation? The Future of Mormon Scholarship ‘Lost Generation” has been used to refer both to a generation of American expatriate writers after World War I and to a Utah/Mormon group of writer-intellectuals of the same period. The Mormon generation just after World War II has been rich in intellectual and literary accomplishments, …
How Powerful is God?: Process and LDS Theology in Dialogue
How Powerful is God?: Process and LDS Theology in Dialogue Process theology poses many provocative questions for LDS theologians about the nature and power of God, especially about whether God or some other force or power is the metaphysical Ultimate, how God exerts influence in a universe composed entirely of free agents, and what it …
My Creed
My Creed For millennia, Christians have distilled their beliefs into short statements, similar to Joseph Smith’s Articles of Faith. While the practice of a committee imposing a creedal statement of belief on a congregation is anathema to Mormons, the use of the literary form of the creed by individuals is a helpful spiritual discipline. It …
Trailing Clouds of Glory and Lifting the Veil: A Pre-mortal/Past-life Primer
Trailing Clouds of Glory and Lifting the Veil: A Pre-mortal/Past-life Primer The LDS church is one of the few Christian religions that teaches the doctrine of premortal learning experiences (D&C 138:56). Anecdotal evidence for pre-birth learning experiences is increasing in the fields of psychology and psychiatry. Remarkably, many of these learning experiences are reported to …
Because ‘No Bell in Us Tolls’: Imagining A More Explicit Pragmatism in Mormon Thought
Because ‘No Bell in Us Tolls’: Imagining A More Explicit Pragmatism in Mormon Thought many observers have noted in passing that Mormonism is a very ‘pragmatic” religion, but as they use the term they usually don’t mean much beyond “practical.” While I agree that this is a fair characterization of various aspects of LDS thought …
Sunstone Magazine: An Appreciation and New Vision
Sunstone Magazine: An Appreciation and New Vision In his first four months as Sunstone’s new editor, Dan has learned many things about the magazine’s 25-year evolution. He has also begun to sense new directions for the next several years. He looks forward to a lively discussion with anyone interested in contributing to the magazine’s vision …
The Power of God
The Power of God It is often said that the God of the Latter-day Saints is finite. However, this is not very often conceded by Latter-day Saints themselves. Saying that God is finite seems to be a very good starting point to solving the problem of evil, on the one hand. But, on the other …
The Academic Study Of Religion: Prospects And Perils
The Academic Study Of Religion: Prospects And Perils The recent announcement that early steps have been taken toward establishing a Mormon Studies program at Utah Valley State College has generated much excitement among many who have long felt a need for such a program at one of Utah’s state schools, but it has also raised …
Orson Scott Card and the Ontology of Redemption
Orson Scott Card and the Ontology of Redemption This paper will focus on Card’s thinking in general, but especially on the philosophically- significant novel, Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus. I will argue that the novel poses, in a profound way, what is entailed in the idea of redemption–and indeed, in the practice and the …