Day 3: Book of Mormon, Jacob Nephi dies and his son, Jacob, takes the mantle of prophet. I’m noticing a pattern. There’s a good bit of prophesy in this book, but we get back to the stories. It’s amusing to me how many times the brass/golden plates are mentioned. The prophets go out of their […]
Day 2: Book of Mormon, Second Nephi The tone of the Book of Mormon shifts considerably in Second Nephi. Lehi, Nephi, and their families reach the promised land (America) with the help of Liahona, the divine brass ball. Lehi, sensing he is near death, launches into several chapters of blessing and guidance. He asks his […]
Day 1: Book of Mormon, First Nephi And it came to pass…and it came to pass…and it came to pass…and it came to pass… I’ll go ahead and be glib about the history of the Book of Mormon, though I mean no disrespect. An angel appeared to Joseph Smith and told him about brass plates […]
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is fascinating. For the record, they prefer not to use the word “Mormon” to describe them anymore, so I’m trying to be respectful. I’ll use LDS from here on out. The LDS faith, in my estimation, is a uniquely American religious expressions. Granted, there are more LDS […]
I didn’t set out to read the Qur’an and finish it on the Eid al’Fitr, but I did. It feels fitting, but I want to be clear that I didn’t undertake this as a Ramadan observance. That is not my tradition and I wouldn’t want to cheapen a month that means so much to so […]
Day 12, 13 & 14 Taking the Qur’an on the road means time to spend with the last 68 Surahs in this journey. It’s a weird thing to carry another holy book with me on a journey. Normally, let’s be honest, I don’t carry any. But in the United States, if someone saw me reading […]
Day 10 & 11 Thinking today about the character of God in the Qur’an. Well, the character of God, gods, or goddesses in any religious tradition. I know I use the word “God” here, but there are characteristics between the God of Islam and the God of Christianity that are distinct. I know some people […]
Day 9 My mind is all about the Queen of Sheba today. In high school, I had to do a project on the Abyssinian Empire, so I got to dive into myths and stories about Sheba and Solomon quite a bit. I even create a pretty great (If I say so myself) video illustrating the […]
Day 7 & 8 I’m now well over half-way done reading the Qur’an. It feels like a good point to take stock of this experiment. I’m glad I lumped two days of reading together because I’m finding my interaction with the text is much different than the Bible. I’m trying to be respectful of the […]
Day 6 A couple things jumped out at me today. First, I’m getting a dose of religious laws — which I love. It’s not on the level of the Torah, but, still. I’ll enjoy the lists while they last! Second, I should probably read the hadith at some point. So many of the stories in […]