Diligently Seek

I used to think that Joseph Smith apologetics was a respectable way to spend one's time. Even one's career. Big names like Richard Bushman , Terryl Givens , and Margaret Barker were doing it, so there must be something there. Then I realized that Joseph Smith's early truth claims are as bogus as those of your local psychic. I'm not kidding. Yesterday I was listening to a symposium that took place in 2005 at the Library of Congress to commemorate the 200th birthday of "The Prophet." Nothing would make me happier than to link to this symposium here, but it seems to have been stripped. I have the audio and I will upload it to You Tube as soon as I can. The three academic heavy weights mentioned above were participants, along with many others whose credentials demand respect. Bushman was the first speaker. He made some terrific points about the malleability of history and the degree to which one’s starting context matters. I expected him to provide n...

Habit Instead of Happiness             It was my great pleasure to attend The Metropolitan Opera’s fathom events broadcast of Eugene Onegin on October 5. I have been a fan of Italian opera for years, and had not yet been introduced to Russian opera. I was extremely moved by the beautiful music, impeccable vocal performances, and the treatment within the play of the Romantic versus the Realistic outlook.             The event was broadcast in the middle of the day on October 5 th . I attended the broadcast at the Edwards Stadium 21 theatre on Overland Road. The story originated as a narrative poem by Alexander Pushkin. It was published serially 1825-1832, and a full publication was issued the following year. This novel in verse was adapted into an opera by Pyotr Tchaikovsky in 1879. The focus of the story is on the young woman Tatyana. Tatyana lives on a large estate i...

The Thirteenth Century Proto-Renaissance             To make history more approachable, it is often separated into certain definable epochs. This helps us to identify similarities between actions and works of art in a specific period as distinguished from an earlier or later period. The problem with identifying united movements within history is that human behavior is not linear. Eleventh century architects, for example, did not know that they were supposed to be Romanesque. We soon see that different historical movements overlap each other. Where the Renaissance is concerned, this overlap has been difficult to tie down. It is usually defined as taking place in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth centuries. Much of the artwork, however, from the Fourteenth century fits well into the modernistic Renaissance movements.             One way that Fourteenth century art coincides wit...

Artistic Legislation             Percy Bysshe Shelley said that poets are the “unacknowledged legislators of the worlds”  (Shelley, A Defence of Poetry 918) . His point was that poets crystallize the ideas of an age, and effect the movements of civilization. It seems that is only half of the story though. Poetry certainly does influence change, but it is also influenced by other movements. Throughout history this symbiotic relationship between poets, and the artistic periods they write in has been evident.             Poetry during the Renaissance, for example, was just as interested in a resurgence of Greek and Roman artwork as was painting. Francis Petrarch exhibited this impulse in certain of his sonnets, such as sonnet 78 from his Rime Sparse , in which he appeals to the mythical artist Pygmalion, who fell in love with his own sculpture, saying, “how happy you s...

My Evening at the Vedic Study Center             On the night of November 22, I attended a Baghavad Ghita study session at The Jewel of the Treasure Valley Hare Krshna Temple and Vedic Cultural Center. It was a great experience. I called ahead of time to inform them that I was coming, and they instructed me to bring my copy of the Baghavad Ghita with me to The Temple, to leave my shoes at the door, to arrive at 6:30 PM, and to expect to stay until 9:00 PM. When I arrived I was greeted by a man my age name Sri Arjuna, and told to pass through their shrine room into the main hall where the opening chants and study take place. I sat on the floor on a small rug. Sri Arjuna then led the group of about 20 people in a chant: “Hare Krshna Hare Krshna/Krshna Krshna Hare Hare/Hare Rama Hare Rama/Rama Rama Hare Hare” (Arjuna) .             After the chanting session was over, I was...

Tarzan Kills Cannibals Tarzan Kills Cannibals “It seems that uncorrupted nature is good, since these folk, instead of eating me, showed me a thousand kindnesses.” – Voltaire 403             Few practices in any culture fascinate and repulse westerners like cannibalism. The image of benign missionaries roasting in a pot, while savage persons of dark complexion prepare to feast is indelible.  It is a foundational part of the western image of Africa.  The picture has been painted by agenda driven European explorers, and novelists like Edgar Rice Burroughs.  In his novel Tarzan of the Apes, Burroughs uses cannibalism to place white, aristocratic, men of noble birth at the apex of civilization.  That view not only perpetuates false history, it comes with a heavy death toll.  When Christopher Columbus received word of the Caribales in the West Indies, no aspect of the...