Studio et Quoque Fide

I have, for the most part, tried to publicly stay out of the raging debate about last year’s controversy at the Maxwell Institute. The one blog post I made (at the time) on the subject avoided making any judgments about the decision, or speculating on the many details. In the other blog post I made six months later, I also avoided making any kind of judgment on the decision made at the Maxwell Institute. I have, instead, focused my limited public comments to responding to what others have been saying about the whole hullabaloo (in the first: what others were saying a the paper in the second: what others were saying about Dan Peterson), and I intend to continue that trend today.

Now, I know that there are much more useful ways to read/listen to conference then with apologetic issues in mind. And I certainly wouldn’t advise that anyone seek out an apologetic message from conference at the expense of other, far more important messages that the General Authorities and the Spirit are trying to communicate. I’ll also grant that things which one, such as myself, might read/hear an apologetic message in are probably, more often than not, not indented apologetically. But, I do think that conference often has some things in it that are useful in our efforts to defend the faith, and so with that in mind I give you these apologetic notes. Some of things are not strictly apologetic, but have some bearing on the matter.

Overview
            Like other more recent issues, this issue is rather thin compared to issues from the last decade. The highlight of this issue is the lengthy review of Rod Meldrum’s DNA argument, which seemed to be the top priority of FARMS Review in 2010. In addition to dealing with DNA and the Book of Mormon, topics covered in this Review include Book of Mormon apologetics, literary approaches to the Book of Mormon, the Sermon on the Mount as a Temple text, grace, and plagiarism.