Author: smallaxe

Before leaving on my mission I spent several evenings teaming up with the missionaries in our ward to see how they taught and to gain a general feel for mission life. I still recall teaching one investigator a lesson on the role of Jesus Christ, part of which included a discussion on the resurrection–how it was a free gift and that we would gain a perfect body, etc. Continue reading “Lacking Celestial Motivation”

I overheard part of an interesting discussion this past Sunday when a member of our ward was discussing traveling to China. Knowing that “tea” would be served at practically every meal, this member wondered what kinds of teas were against the Word of Wisdom. I don’t recall the entirety of the answer, but I do remember one of the people involved in the discussion explaining that “tea” in Chinese could refer to anything from water to black tea. Continue reading “Globalizing the Word of Wisdom”

One of the most common answers LDS’s give to the “purpose of life” question is that this life is a “training”,  or a time in which we are “proven” and “tested”. Central to this notion of the purpose of life is the concept of “free agency”. We must be “free to choose” between “good and evil” in order to gain experience for ourselves and grow in this exam, called “life”. Continue reading “Deep Agency”

This started off as a comment on TT’s thread, the Cultural Critic as Apologist; but as it grew in length I figured I should probably start a new post altogether. In TT’s thread he raises the issue of creating space for the cultural critic. This critic is “faithful” in the sense that s/he desires to remain within the community of saints and make it a better place where “the ideals of Zion can be realized”. In this post I want to employ an alternative mode of analysis to look at a kind of space that may potentially serve as a space for the cultural critic. Continue reading “Cultural Capital and Critical Space”

For fear of a looming thread-jack starting here, I opened this thread. Continue reading “Where Todd Wood and Jettboy can have it Out”

I knew that Elder Holland graduated from Yale with a PhD in American Studies, but it never occurred to me until General Conference (while I was watching him speak), that it might be available online via ProQuest (UMI’s Microfilm initiative). Most university libraries, by the way, have subscriptions that will let you download the dissertation for free. Continue reading “Reading Elder Holland’s Dissertation”

I was struck by something I noticed in Sunday School this past week when the instructor handed around a reprint of the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants. Continue reading “Theologically Challenged”

The notion of authority can imply a range of ideas. Among this range it can mean “the power to act in behalf of”, as well “the possession of specialized knowledge”. An authority in the former sense would be a decision/policy maker for an organization or a representative of an organization. An authority in the latter sense would be an expert or reliable source of information on a particular topic. Continue reading “Multiple Authorities”