On this episode of American Scripture's "The Analyst and the Fool," we interview Christian Van Dyke, a PhD student at Claremont Graduate University and his approach to Mormon Studies and Comparative Religion. Christian tells his background and journey to CGU's Philosophy and Religious Thought program which has compelled him to be involved in Mormon Studies but made him apprehensive at the same time. He talks about four foundational texts that have motivated his work and his approach to the study of "religion" throughout his academic career. These texts are Brian Birch's "A Portion of God's Light: Mormonism and Religious Pluralism," Donald Davidson's "On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme," Eugene England's "On Becoming a World Religion: Blacks, the Poor– All of Us," And Peter Winch's "Understanding a Primitive Religion." These texts have helped Christian develop an ethic of comparative religion that argues that there is no neutral place from which to talk about "religion" and to always be mindful that comparison may say more about the one doing the comparing than what the things being compared might actually have in common– or not have in common.

On this episode of American Scripture's "The Analyst and the Fool", we interview Brandon Wilson, a PhD student at Claremont Graduate University and his approach to Mormon Studies. Brandon details a bit about his intellectual biography as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, getting introduced to the writings of Hugh Nibley, learning to think critically and ask penetrating questions about his faith, and how that led him to study esoteric subjects such as Neoplatonism, Hermeticism, and theosophy under Jeffrey Kripal and Claire Fanger at Rice University. Now, Brandon is bringing these approaches to Mormon Studies in how Latter-day Saints experience their temple ordinances, in their ritual and mystical elements, through comparing them with Neoplatonic theurgy. Invoking the comparative hermeneutics of Algis Uzdavinys in his work Philosophy and Theurgy in Late Antiquity, Brandon explores how Mormonism's temple practices can be categorized as "theurgic" in nature, ritual actions that aid initiates to bring themselves into higher states of consciousness and align their actions with the actions of God. For further information on theurgy and Mormonism, please check out the following titles: "Philosophy and Theurgy in Late Antiquity" by Algis Uzdavynis https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Theurgy-Antiquity-Algis-Uzdavinys/dp/1597310867 "Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus" by Gregory Shaw https://www.amazon.com/Theurgy-Soul-Neoplatonism-Iamblichus-2nd/dp/1621380637 "Temple and Cosmos: Beyond This Ignorant Present" by Hugh Nibley https://www.amazon.com/Temple-Cosmos-Ignorant-Present-Collected/dp/0875795234

A look at the Book of Onias, a prophetic text written by Mormon fundamentalist Robert Crossfield, known by his followers as the prophet Onias. In this episode we analyze how Crossfield's text transforms him from an ordinary man to a divinely ordained prophet. The text in question is a short one, but its literary style and subject matter weave a complex web of connections betwen Mormon doctrine, the institutions of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and Onias himself.