A Thoughtful Faith - Mormon / LDS

Latest Episodes:

248: What happened to the Cross?: Michael Reed on Free Masonry, Roman Catholics and Mormonism's perplexing relationship with the Cross May 31, 2018

Show notes

Mormons don't have a robust theology of the cross. They are more inclined to say that, 'We celebrate the Living Christ, not the death of Christ'. Though Mormons claim to be Christian this defining sign of Christianity is missing, while other symbols taken from Free Masonry are abundant. Michael Reed, author of 'Banishing the Cross: The emergence of a Mormon Taboo' joins me to discuss how this circumstance came to be.

006: Women's Bodies, Motherhood, Sex and Oblivious Husbands: A Review of Tully: The Cheeky Mormon Movie Review May 15, 2018

Show notes

Derrick Clements and Gina Colvin get real about the price of motherhood in this somewhat Mormon flavoured review of Tully by Jason Reitman, starring Charlize Theron.

247a : Commentary: The World Ministering Tour: Peter Bleakley May 07, 2018

Show notes

In Part Two the World Ministry Tour of President Russell Nelson, Sister Wendy Watson Nelson, Elder Jeffrey Holland and Sister Patricia Holland comes under fire.

247: Commentary: The New Ministering Programme: Peter Bleakley May 07, 2018

Show notes

Peter Bleakley offers optimistic and enthusiastic commentary on the new ministering programme currently being rolled out to replace Home and Visiting Teaching.

005: The Cheeky Mormon Movie Review: Love, Simon Apr 30, 2018

Show notes

Gina and movie reviewer Derrick Clements discuss Love, Simon.
"Everyone deserves a great love story, but for 17-year-old Simon Spier, it's a little more complicated. He hasn't told his family or friends that he's gay, and he doesn't know the identity of the anonymous classmate that he's fallen for online. Resolving both issues proves hilarious, terrifying and life-changing."

246: "There's a world of ideas competing for access to human brains": Souls, Brains and the Divine: Dr Michael Ferguson Apr 30, 2018

Show notes

Dr Michael Ferguson is a research fellow at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School. He works at the intersections of culture and brain. His active research includes cognitive neuroscientific investigations of intelligence, memory, depression, religiosity, depression and spiritual experience.

Michael joins Gina to discuss the relationship between religion, church, spirituality and God. They go deeply into the question of where and how we feel the spirit, and how the spirit is ultimately an embodied experience.

245: Reading the Old Testament and Loving it: David Bokovoy Apr 22, 2018

Show notes

The Old Testament can be a bit confusing. Biblical scholar Prof. David Bokovoy, joins Gina Colvin to discuss the things that are handy to know in order to really appreciate the Old Testament as a sacred text worth considering today.

244: Uncovering a Doctrine of Black Priesthood Denial: Newell Bringhurst Apr 16, 2018

Show notes

Historian Newell Bringhurst discusses the background to his seminal work, "Saints, Slave and Blacks: The Changing Place of Black People Within Mormonism."
Originally published in 1980, Newell's important contribution to racial politics in the LDS Church is being republished by Greg Kofford books in light of the 40th year anniversary of Official Declaration Two, which extended the priesthood to 'all worthy men.'
Newell joins a chorus of scholars who argue that the Priesthood denial was less about Blackness than it was about White supremacy and as such isn't really worthy of the celebrations that the church intends in the coming months.

243: Listening For God: Prof. Nancy Ross Apr 13, 2018

Show notes

"There's no point at which we can say, 'I've got it.' Always and forever, mystery gets you. Our searching for God is a search for symbols, analogies and metaphors. All theological language is an approximation, offered tentatively in holy awe. That's the best human language can achieve.

We must absolutely must, maintain a fundamental humility before the great mystery. If we do not, religion always worships itself and its formulations, and never God."

So says Fr. Richard Rohr, and thus contemplates art historian and medievalist Professor Nancy Ross. Nancy reflects on the place of art in religion in the West and how that has shaped her own spiritual development.

242: Interrupting General Conference with a Reflection on Holy Week: Bob Rees Apr 01, 2018

Show notes

General Conference is often scheduled at the same time as Holy Week. While there is much in LDS History to suggest that the formal organisation of the church occurred not coincidently with Holy Week of 1830, we are according to Bob Rees, still missing out on the most important season of the Christian year.
In this discussion, Bob and I share our passion for Holy Week and talk about how we would love to see it taken up in LDS liturgical and contemplative practice.

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