The Interpreter Foundation Podcast

  In the second August 21, 2025 episode of The Interpreter Foundation Podcast, our hosts Terry Hutchinson, John Gee, and John Thompson discuss various recent articles in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship and recent posts on By Common Consent and Times and Seasons titled (in part) “Are Latter-day Saints Happier?”. You […]

The post Interpreter Podcast — August 21, 2025b first appeared on The Interpreter Foundation.

Abstract: In his book, The Islamic Jesus, Muslim author Mustafa Akyol paints a portrait of the Qur’an’s Isa (Jesus) and attempts to locate this picture within the landscape of Judeo-Christian biblical scholarship. He is excited to find Islamic Jesus parallels within the Gospels, the Epistle of James, and early non-canonical Christian writings such as the Didache and the Gospel of Thomas. Akyol follows the path of these discoveries to so-called “Jewish Christianity” and postulates that remnants of this Christian movement might have been active in seventh-century Arabia. Ultimately, he writes to encourage Muslims to embrace Jesus as a focal point of much-needed reform within the Islamic world. In my review, I highlight three major themes in Akyol’s book. Each theme represents a topic over which I believe Latter-day Saints can ally with our Muslim neighbors theologically or at least glean helpful learnings from Akyol’s journey of discovery.

The post The Islamic Jesus first appeared on The Interpreter Foundation.

During 1978, 1979, and 1980, Hugh Nibley taught a Doctrine and Covenants Sunday School class. Cassette recordings were made of these classes and some have survived and were digitized by Steve Whitlock and recently enhanced by Nick Galieti. Most of the tapes were in pretty bad condition. The original recordings usually don’t stop or start […]

In the August 21st Come, Follow Me segment of the Interpreter Foundation Podcast, our hosts Bruce Webster, Kris Frederickson, and MArtin Tanner discuss the Come, Follow Me Doctrine & Covenants lesson for September 8 – 14 covering D&C 98–101.

The post Interpreter Come, Follow Me Podcast: Doctrine & Covenants 98–101 for September 8 – 14 first appeared on The Interpreter Foundation.

In the August 21, 2025 episode of The Interpreter Foundation Podcast, our hosts Bruce Webster, Kris Frederickson, and Martin Tanner discuss the wresting the scriptures by critics.

The post Interpreter Podcast — August 21, 2025 first appeared on The Interpreter Foundation.

Abstract: This paper investigates the pragmatic aspect of communication between God and our first parents while in the Garden of Eden—the psychological impact of placing them under contradictory injunctions that result in a situation of “damned if you do and damned if you don’t.” God could not introduce knowledge that, by definition, also involves introducing evil, which is a prerequisite for choice. Instead he issued a paradoxical injunction that placed Adam and Eve in an influence-free decision-making environment with the implied message of “make a decision!” The beguiling influence of Satan provided additional information, a way to escape the paradox. Hence, the paradoxical injunction became an instrument to influence a decision-making process without God having to introduce evil and without having to make an argument in one direction over another.

The post Why God Placed Adam and Eve Under Paradoxical Injunctions: A View of the Garden Scene through the Optics of Communication Theory first appeared on The Interpreter Foundation.

During 1978, 1979, and 1980, Hugh Nibley taught a Doctrine and Covenants Sunday School class. Cassette recordings were made of these classes and some have survived and were digitized by Steve Whitlock and recently enhanced by Nick Galieti. Most of the tapes were in pretty bad condition. The original recordings usually don’t stop or start […]

In the August 14th Come, Follow Me segment of the Interpreter Foundation Podcast, our hosts Terry Hutchinson, Kevin Christensen, and Mark Johnson discuss the Come, Follow Me Doctrine & Covenants lesson for September 1 – 7 covering D&C 94–97.

The post Interpreter Come, Follow Me Podcast: Doctrine & Covenants 94–97 for September 1 – 7 first appeared on The Interpreter Foundation.

In the August 14, 2025 episode of The Interpreter Foundation Podcast, our hosts Terry Hutchinson, Kevin Christensen, and Mark Johnson discuss an article on plausibility on the Times and Seasons blog (https://timesandseasons.org/ and the 13th annual Interpreter Foundation Birthday Party.

The post Interpreter Podcast — August 14, 2025 first appeared on The Interpreter Foundation.