084: Kevin Christensen: Discerning True Prophets

Today we sit down with LDS apologist Kevin Christensen. He is a Lifetime LDS member. Born and raised in Utah he served in the England-Leeds mission. His has made his living as a technical writer since 1984and resides Pittsburgh, PA.

Kevin shares this information about his faith and those works of his and others that have deep apologetic value.

“”””My testimony was cemented in 1973, during my third reading of the Book of Mormon, upon reading Ether 12:39. A reading of Hugh Nibley’s An Approach to the Book of Mormon while on my Mission turned me towards apologetics. I’ve published a dozen essays for FARMS, a dozen in the Meridian online magazine, a few articles and letters in Sunstone. I’ve published in Dialogue and, in collaboration with Margaret Barker, in Joseph Smith Jr., edited by Terryl Givens and Reid Nelson, published by Oxford University Press. I’ve written three reviews for the Interpreter, including “Sophic Box and Mantic Vista”.

I’ve published a couple of essays with FAIR, including a detailed study of “Biblical Keys for Discerning True and False Prophets” which demonstrates to me, at least, that Joseph Smith’s critics ignore the bulk of the keys, and often repeat the mistakes and arguments offered by Biblical critics of Biblical prophets.

http://en.fairmormon.org/Biblical_Keys_for_Discerning_True_and_False_Prophets

I find Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions very helpful in understanding debates about things LDS. Several of my essays quote his work, and I’ve compared it to Alma 32. I also use Ian Barbour’s wonderful Myths, Models, and Paradigms: A Comparative Study of Science and Religion. See, for instance “Paradigms Crossed” here:

http://publications.maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/fullscreen/?pub=1436&index=8

I give my orientation to spiritual experiences, both LDS and otherwise, in a Meridan essay called “A Model of Mormon Spiritual Experience.” Alas the Meridian links are broken now, but here is a new link to a pdf.

http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/22100469/model_of_experience.pdf

I often cite the Perry Scheme for Cognitive and Ethical Growth, to which I was introduced by this email from Veda Hale, back when I lived in Kansas, and participated on the AML List:

http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/22100469/Perry%20Scheme.pdf

My best known essays are those which explore the Margaret Barker’s First Temple theology relative to the Book of Mormon.

http://www.thinlyveiled.com/kchristensen.htm

I like Hugh Nibley’s comment that if we have answers to the Terrible Questions, (Where do we come from? Why are we here? Is this all there is? Is Jesus the Christ? What comes after? How can we know?), much of the rest is trivial in comparison.””””

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