Making our history one step at a time
How did we get from there to here? Honestly, when the Church started putting out its new Church history, I was most excited about volume 3 because it addresses this question. We are all familiar with the events of the Restoration, but the Church today is so different. This fills part of the gap, covering the events of 1893 to 1955.
You show up to class. But instead of takings notes while your professor leads a discussion and flips through a Powerpoint, you are re-enacting the trial of Galileo. Some students argue for the new cosmology, but those denouncing it have the upper hand. I can't wait to try out my first Reacting classroom!
My wife and I read Mormonism and White Supremacy: American Religion and the Problem of Racial Innocence by Joanna Brooks together as a part of our observance of Black History Month. Our Church has its own complicated history of racial issues, and Brooks has assembled a compelling narrative of what happened, how we got here,... Continue Reading →
I was pleasantly surprised to find a copy of Terryl Givens' Doors of Faith in the mail the other week. I had been getting a book here and there from the A Brief Theological Introduction series on the Book of Mormon, but I assumed I had been removed from the list. Good to know I... Continue Reading →
As a Latter-Day Saint, I know that church doctrine was leveraged to justify racism. This book looks at how Christianity was used throughout American history to justify slavery and segregation and is a starting point for evaluating how that still impacts us today.
I took a historical detour this week to Greece in 1821. I honestly had no idea there was a revolution in Greece in 1821-- but then again, I never realized Beethoven and Thomas Jefferson were contemporaries.
Only three presidents have formally been impeached. Andrew Johnson was the first. This week's read is a deep-dive into the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, to hopefully shed some light on current events.
"It is no exaggeration to say that the only thing I learned about slavery during my British education was that we 'ended' it." ~ Zadie Smith French asks us to re-evaluate the centrality Africa and Africans have played in the narrative of modernity in this ambitious book.
Get ready for some nostalgia for a different political climate in "Dear Barack" recounting the friendship between US president Barack Obama and German chancellor Angela Merkel. Also, I *heart* all things German.
I'm reading again, and I started with the biography of Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan, The Great Dissenter I hadn't heard of Harlan before. He fought for the civil rights of African Americans from the bench in a time when white America had turned their backs. In his dissents, he called out the hypocrisy of his colleagues and set the legal footwork for the next generation.
History Engineers 