From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #204 Reply-To: aml-list Sender: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk aml-list-digest Friday, November 24 2000 Volume 01 : Number 204 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 12:35:22 EST From: Larry Jackson Subject: [AML] MN Fishers of Men: Deseret Book Press Release From: Deseret Book Press Release To: Mormon News Subject: MN Fishers of Men: Deseret Book Press Release 21Nov00 A2 Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 23:45:00 -0500 [From Mormon-News] Fishers of Men Volume 1 of The Kingdom and the Crown Historical Fiction by Bestselling Author Gerald N. Lund SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH -- Gerald N. Lund, whose bestselling historical fiction series "The Work and the Glory" has sold nearly 3 million copies, introduces a new series of historical fiction. "The Kingdom and the Crown" series begins with "Fishers of Men" (Shadow Mountain, $25.95), when a carpenter from Nazareth is being talked about as the Great Deliverer. Like a much-loved movie you see over and over, knowing the ending but finding new things to revel over each time you watch it, this story is both familiar and vibrantly new. We meet Jesus through the eyes and views of three families, who have heard about him -- with curiosity and some skepticism -- and then come to know him. Following the households in their daily lives, we learn about lifestyles, customs, religious practices, clothing, foods, and betrothal and marriage customs (including the tradition of lifting the bride's veil and the fact that the first prenuptial agreements date back to at least 400 years before Christ). This was a time in which the Jewish nation was divided and subdivided into groups that viewed each other with considerable suspicion if not open contempt. Dramatically different cultures were living together. Slavery was a common social institution. The story begins in the fall of A.D. 29. There is a great commotion as word spreads about a man called John the Baptist, who is saying that the long-promised Messiah has finally come. Lund provides chapter notes detailing the historic background of the developing story and referring to scriptures, the writing of early rabbinical sources, contemporary historians such as Philo and Flavius Josephus, and extensive archaeological excavations. He points out that the four gospels do not contain any description of either Jesus or his disciples, nor the ages for anyone except Jesus who was thirty when he began his ministry. Care was taken to keep the characters of real people consistent with what is known about them from scriptural record. In this first book in the series, the disciples are called. Andrew and Peter. James and John. Phillip. Nathanael. Bartholomew. James the son of Alphaeus. Simon. Observing those gathering around Jesus, one of the book's characters comments: "Every one different from the other. He's called fishermen. He's called Zealot. Now he's called a publican. Each of these men have now been called to follow Jesus and become fishers of men." These are the days of the changing of water into wine at a wedding feast; the healing of leprosy and palsy; blind men seeing; the sermon on the mount; the feeding of 5,000. These are the days of miracles. Crowds are now following Jesus, and the realization is dawning that "Jesus works these great miracles because he is the Messiah. He is not the Messiah because he works miracles." "Fishers of Men" concludes a few months later with a conversation between Simeon, the lead character, and Jesus on the seashore. Subsequent volumes will continue the story through the crucifixion and resurrection, and the ministry of the apostles that followed. # # # About the author: Gerald N. Lund earned degrees in sociology before pursuing postgraduate studies in Hebrew and the New Testament. He recently retired from a thirty-four year career in religious education in order to focus more fully on his writing. He is the author of "Fire of the Covenant" and "The Work and the Glory" series, which has sold nearly 3 million copies. See: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1573458201/mormonnews More about Gerald N. Lund's "Kingdom and the Crown Volume 1: Fishers of Men" at Amazon.com >From Mormon-News: Mormon News and Events Forwarding is permitted as long as this footer is included Mormon News items may not be posted to the World Wide Web sites without permission. Please link to our pages instead. For more information see http://www.MormonsToday.com/ Send join and remove commands to: majordomo@MormonsToday.com Put appropriate commands in body of the message: To join: subscribe mormon-news To leave: unsubscribe mormon-news To join digest: subscribe mormon-news-digest - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 07:21:12 -0700 From: "Richard C. Russell" Subject: Re: [AML] Anti-Intellectualism - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Christopher Bigelow" To: Sent: Friday, November 17, 2000 3:55 PM Subject: Re: [AML] Anti-Intellectualism Intellectualism is a real problem for Mormons, because so often it starts resembling humanism, which looks like it's antithetical to the gospel. === The problem for Mormons IMO is that they are as afraid of pseudo threats as they are of real ones. Humanism understood is not only not antithetical to the gospel but Mormonism is the most humanist of all -- Humans are Gods in embryo. Man is a little lower than the angels. Man is God's greatest creation. God's whole purpose is directed toward the exaltation of human beings. Psalms 139:14 "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well." D&C 58:28 "For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward." Further, regarding an intellectual approach to religion: 1 Peter 3:15 "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:" God gave us brains and failure to use them constitutes IMO an affront to Him. I don't know what is to be feared by acknowledging rational theology, logic and thoughtful faith. === Recently I received a subscription offer from Free Inquiry, a magazine published by the Council for Secular Humanism that "answers only to men and women who want to think for themselves instead of being bamboozled by appeals to tradition, authority, or blind faith." As I have reviewed this magazine's promotional materials, I find myself comparing it to Mormon intellectualism and wondering what the two have in common and how much they SHOULD have in common. === "Appeals to tradition, authority, or blind faith" constitute what philosophers call logical fallacies. One should have better reasons for belief than those built on such shakey ground. To be sure, religious belief is highly subjective, but appeals to authority and tradition have the potential to be flimsy and without substance, thus prone to error. === Sunstone The mission of the Sunstone Foundation is to sponsor open forums of Mormon thought and experience. Under the motto "Faith Seeking Understanding," we examine and express the rich spiritual, intellectual, social, and artistic qualities of Mormon history and contemporary life. We encourage humanitarian service, honest inquiry, and responsible interchange of ideas that is respectful of all people and what they hold sacred. Free Inquiry Our best guide to truth is free and rational inquiry; we should therefore not be found by the dictates of arbitrary authority, comfortable superstition, stifling tradition, or suffocating orthodoxy. We should defer to no dogma--neither religious nor secular--and never be afraid to ask, "How do you know?" We should be concerned with the here and now, with solving human problems with the best resources of human minds and hearts. I admire Sunstone's idealized goals, but I think most educated Mormons would say the Free Inquiry statement applies more to Sunstone than Sunstone's statement does, which highlights the difficulties and pitfalls of the whole endeavor. === If this were an either-or proposition then I think you would be right. However, as Jesus said, "these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." Do you think that faithful belief and thoughtful belief that seeks understanding are antithetical? === The spiritual dangers I see intellectuals facing are pride, stiff-neckedness, and relying on the arm of flesh (in other words, humanism stated in orthodox Mormon terms). === Are not these same dangers facing the orthodox, the dogmatic, the ultra-conservative? One who relies unflinchingly on human agents of God is, in a sense, relying on the arm of flesh. The stubborn, rigid certainty with which they dismiss uncomfortable or controversial questions is prideful IMO. These problems are not the exclusive purview of intellectuals. === But I see room for using god-given intellectual talents to openly explore Mormon experience, scholarship, issues, and art in a way that is at least not unfaithful, although the institutional Church and those who fully cleave unto it intellectually and culturally (not just spiritually and doctrinally) will rarely be satisfied with it. I look to intellectuals to continue finding sensitive, careful ways to break the following cultural taboos identified by Free Inquiry magazine and certainly applicable to Mormonism: Don't criticize anything the public loves. Don't demean any social icons. Don't evaluate dogma, superstition, or strongly held beliefs. Don't question the current trends. Don't ask for evidence. Don't criticize religion. === It is these very prohibitions (unwritten rules?) that rankle anyone who values free expression or believes God truly made us free agents. If the thing is indeed true, none of these will undo it. In that I am dogmatic and stiff-necked. ;-) === The question for me is, is it possible to do so in a more inclusive, less polarizing way? Can Mormons learn to simultaneously juggle intellectualism/humanism and faith? === I believe individual Mormons can. As presently constituted, I have less confidence that the collective Mormon community can. ********************************************* Richard C. Russell, SLC UTAH www.leaderlore.com, www.keyscouter.com "There is never the last word, only the latest." Let there be whirled peas! ********************************************* - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 15:46:12 -0200 From: "renatorigo" Subject: Re: [AML] Anti-Intellectualism >Todd wrote: I think that art comes from a place very much like the place that my faith comes from. I think that the ability to see as an artist, can, in many ways, be a gift of the spirit. Todd, In my opinion you are half right.... the ability to see as an artist is a gift of the spirit (50%) but it=B4s also a result of the environment where each one of us was educated.. (50%)... The same happens with our personality... Renato Rigo renatorigo@ig.com.br - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 12:41:58 -0500 From: "Debra L. Brown" Subject: Re: [AML] Mormon Spec. Fiction & Mysteries I have a question then, where would _The Invisible Saint_ fall in all this? Debbie Brown - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 15:56:39 -0200 From: "renatorigo" Subject: Re: [AML] Anti-Intellectualism > Scott, I agree with you.... We can find educated and non-educated studids.... I think I agree with this definion of a stupid: a person (independent of the education) that doesn=B4t want to learn...That=B4s why I believe that everybody interested in Literature isn=B4t stupid...and if We find that somebody had some problem in understanding our work...we have to have the capacity of analise the fact and sometimes learn with it....Change our work...improve it....learn... Renato Rigo renatorigo@ig.com.br - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 13:40:05 -0700 From: Tom Matkin Subject: Re: [AML] Anti-Intellectualism Tracie Laulusa wrote: > > I have tried reading a variety > of poets over the past year-many Mormons among them. I'm afraid I find most > of it inaccessible. I just don't understand it even though I very much want > to. I wish more fine Mormon writers were writing on a level that can be > understood by more people, instead of just to the 'intellectual' element > amongst us. > If you favour the poets who write 'Bout our common and everyday fight You risk being a thorn And attracting the scorn Of the ones who refuse to write trite. So if you want a place in the sun Where the best intellectuals run You must write imagery That no one else can see Or explain when you're finally done. But if you are a bit still confused I can point you to technique I've used If it makes sense to me And I like it you see That's the kind with which I am enthused. All the rest of the verse that is writ Merely puts guys like me in a snit I don't want it obscure Or too common for sure I just want it just right for my fit. Tom "who confesses humbly and begs forgiveness for being one of those who has been regularly torturing Tracie with verse in the past year" Matkin - -- Tom Matkin www.matkin.com "The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed." - - Lloyd Jones - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 11:53:48 -0700 From: "mjames_laurel" Subject: [AML] Researching Martin & Willie Companies Can anybody point me to what they consider the best book or books on the Martin and Willie handcart companies? I've run across several, but it's hard to know from advertising copy or descriptions which one would help my research the most. I saw a couple last week at the Church History Museum store but didn't buy them because the cost was prohibitive. Now I'm wishing I'd bought them, but can't remember the titles. I'll appreciate any and all responses, either on the list or privately. Thanks! Laurel Brady - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 16:49:02 -0700 From: "Jim Cobabe" Subject: Re: [AML] Anti-Intellectualism Tom Matkin: - --- You must write imagery That no one else can see Or explain when you're finally done. - --- Tom, I see your point. Do we not detect a touch of the "Emperor's New Clothes" syndrome--a silent conspiratorial consensus on the splendid finery we all sport. But, in "real life" it's just not much to look at. Reminiscent of lines overheard in "The Sting" (Redford, Newman) "Mabel, do you see what I see." "So what? You've seen one, you've seen 'em all." "Yeah, but this one's eating my popcorn!" Honestly, this is fine vaudeville, but not high drama. - --- Jim Cobabe _____________________________________________________________________________________ Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ End of aml-list-digest V1 #204 ******************************