milk & honey mamas

Contributed by Kristen On the sacrament (for littles) Have you ever been to a feast? A feast has all of your favorite foods, like cake, biscuits and raspberry jam, macaroni and cheese, and chocolate ice cream cones. Can you imagine a feast for everyone in the whole world? For your mommy and daddy, your grandmas…

Contributed by Kristen I guess it’s musicals for me, lately. I’ve got Hamilton on my mind: “who lives, who dies, who tells your story?” It’s a compelling question. History, of course, is written from the perspective of the victors. The story could always be told another way, from another perspective, in a different voice.  The…

Contributed by Kristen I want to start this week where I ended last week: “all that I say could be told another way.” It’s from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The narrator sings those words as she’s introducing the story of Joseph, sold into slavery by his brothers. “All that I say could be…

Contributed by Kristen I classify Joseph Smith as a mystic. This category remains contested in the academic field of theology, with diverging definitions from Wiliam James to Grace Jantzen. I use it because it is helpful to me to think about his experiences in the context of a long tradition of people who communed with…

Contributed by Kristen Questions of authority have long characterized theological discussions in Christianity, though in markedly different ways. In the early Jesus movement, devoted converts interpreted the accounts of Jesus’ life and death in defense of the movement at a time when Christianity and the crucified God was not yet considered a viable religious movement.…

Contributed by Greer Bates Cordner Greer Bates Cordner is a Ph.D. candidate at Boston University. Her primary area of research is American Religious History, with Global Christianity and Mission as a secondary area. Greer also holds a Master of Theological Studies degree (Boston University) and a B.A. in History (Brigham Young University). She is a…

Contributed by Kristen D&C 10 follows the story of the 116 lost pages, a story whose details remain mysterious. We do know that the incident involved Martin Harris and his wife. The text of the revelation circumvents Harris’ spouse; the words are directed to and dealing solely with the men involved in translation. But on…

Contributed by Kristen I started this year’s storytelling efforts around the D&C with an alliteration (my signature move) about truth: proliferate, prodigious, pollinating. Truth is not like a mirror, or a singularity. Truth is like a multitude. Like an ocean. Like a changing forest. Like a field of wild strawberries. Which means, for me, that…

Contributed by Kristen Someone asked me recently if I believe the Book of Mormon is a historical record or a creation of Joseph Smith. I actually feel significant apathy toward the question. That’s not to say I think it’s totally irrelevant and I sympathize with the weight behind it—I recognize that it really matters to…