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In the courtroom representing individuals accused of crimes, Heather Chesnut learned fundamentals of Christian discipleship. This book shares compelling stories from the eighteen years she worked at the Salt Lake Legal Defender Association.
The chapters at the end of the book of Mosiah see an important change in the shape of the story we’ve been following (or trying to follow, at any rate). From the time of the first King Mosiah, peoples and records have divided and re-divided into ever-narrower strands of story: Zeniff’s colony splits from the Zarahemla-based group; then Alma’s people depart into the wilderness; then Noah and his cronies leave their families, and their group fractures into multiple sub-factions.
I’ve always thought that these chapters were a story of two peoples—the people of King Limhi and the people of Alma. But on closer reading I noticed a third group of people that undergoes dramatic change in these chapters—the Lamanites. All three groups learn something that changes their physical conditions, but their spiritual change and relationship with the Lord vary.
The book of Mosiah is built around a contrast between two kings, the righteous King Benjamin and the wicked King Noah. This pair of kings and their character differences are central to the book’s political theology. But there’s another study in contrast presented in these chapters: the prophet and the king. Where Benjamin combines these roles at the opening of Mosiah, the two archetypes are teased apart in Mosiah 11-17 and pasted onto the opposed figures of Abinadi and Noah.
Regret is a singularly painful emotion. Who hasn’t been haunted by mental replays in which we hope against hope that somehow, impossibly, a moment from our past would just play out differently this time as we relive the agony