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Orson Scott Card on Hugh Nibley & C.S. Lewis

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Dr. Hugh Nibley lecturing

Dr. Hugh Nibley lecturing

Orson Scott Card wrote a great article today on Mormon Times, highlighting the tremendous influence that Hugh Nibley and C.S. Lewis have had on his “Christian education” over the years, but particularly when he was younger.

I couldn’t agree more with his feelings about the impact that these two scholars have had.  I’ve particularly been influenced, even fundamentally changed, by the writings of Hugh Nibley, and I’m just beginning to get into Lewis.  Like I’ve said in the past, in a way I’ve felt personally mentored by Nibley through reading his work, a sentiment shared by Orson Scott Card:  [Read more…]

TempleStudy.com One Year Anniversary

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A Wordle created from all the text of TempleStudy.com posts in 2008. Click on the image to see a larger version. Created at http://www.wordle.net/

A Wordle created from all the text of TempleStudy.com posts in 2008. Click on the image to see a larger version. Made at http://www.wordle.net/

One year ago today I published my first post on TempleStudy.com, my first blog.  And it has been quite a year.  During 2008 I expanded my learning on the temple in leaps and bounds, and was able to share some of that with you as well as learn from you.  I met countless new people and made many new friends.  We shared new thoughts, interpretations, and discoveries with each other.  I attended for the first time several conferences and liveblogged them.  I’ve been humbled by your kindness and charity.  I was blessed to touch the lives of numerous people as you sent me emails expressing your thoughts and feelings.  You have touched me too, in multitudinous ways.  And the growth has been tremendous—nearly 100,000 people have visited the website from 170 countries around the world generating over 220,000 hits.  Over 500 people have subscribed by RSS feed, and another 254 have subscribed by email.  It’s been an amazing experience.  I hope your participation with me and our commenters has been fruitful for you, and has given you more insight into temple studies and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

To commemorate this anniversary of TempleStudy.com my dear wife was very kind and made a Wordle of all the posts from this past year.  For those of you who are not familiar with Wordles, it is an online tool that you can use to input text and generate a word collage with the most commonly used words shown larger, kind of like a tag cloud.  So you can see in this image where our focus was this past year.  Fun to see.  My wife printed out a copy and framed it for me to hang on our office wall.  She’s the best!

For those who are wondering where I’ve been the last month or so, I haven’t left.  The blogging has slowed down a bit.  I think I can blame some of that on our beautiful new baby boy that was born at the end of September.  He’s been a joy to our family, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.  But it did shift my priorities a bit though, and gave me time to rethink things.  I will continue to blog about the temple, but it may not be as frequent.  I want to expand my learning into other areas, in addition to temples.  Not that TempleStudy.com will go too dormant, but I like the sentiments addressed by Sharon Otterman in her New York Times article on slow blogging.  Blogging is becoming a form of expression, and a channel of inquiry and thought, not a 140 character Twitter feed.

So while TempleStudy.com might not fill your daily appetite for news on the temple, hopefully the posts that are published here will be full of meaning.  I look forward to sharing new insights on the temple, and learning more from you throughout 2009.  Please feel free to send me your thoughts and findings.  I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for a wonderful year!

Opening up Comments at TempleStudy.com

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When I first started TempleStudy.com I wanted to be absolutely sure that this blog would not turn into a place of defamation and profanation. I take my temple covenants very seriously, and did not want detractors from posting comments that would destroy the Spirit, the Gospel message, or the insightful discussions that would take place here. Consequently, initially I turned on comment moderation for all comments, so that all comments would have to be approved by me before appearing on the blog.

After having the site for several months now, and having more experience with other blogs that hold comments for moderation, I have found that it seems to be a significant deterrent from not only commenting, but perhaps even returning to the website after an initial visit. I want TempleStudy.com to be a place where we can talk about these fascinating subjects, and where people can add their own insights. I want people to want to return to the site. I want it to be a resource for people to learn more about the temple, in an appropriate and respectful setting, within the bounds the Lord has set.

Therefore, I have turned off comment moderation, so that any comments posted will appear immediately on the site. This will allow more real-time interaction with my readers, and between readers, on the site. To be sure, I will still be moderating comments, and I still hold the right of complete editorial control over what is said and how, but it will be after the fact. If there are inappropriate comments, they will be swiftly deleted. Comments may also be edited for content from time to time.

I hope this adjustment will help TempleStudy.com grow and be a place where we can learn how to appropriately discuss, study, and share the incredible insights that modern LDS scholarship has provided us on the holy temple. And there is still much yet to discover.