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This afternoon I had a couple of hours on my hands, thanks to an obligatory long commute, so I fired up the latest Mormon Matters to listen to Professor Patrick Mason of Claremont University and others discuss the history of LDS apologetics. I highly recommend this podcast, which was released by both Mormon Matters and Mormon Stories. Students in Doctor Scratch's advanced seminar in Mopologetics are highly encouraged to listen to this.

Why is it so important? The careful listener will not only be treated to a handy overview of the history of Mormon apologetics, but she or he will also be able to discern differences between what we call "Mopologetics" and regular old apologetics. It was gratifying to hear other bonafide academics at peer institutions confirm what we at Cassius University have long known: that Mopologetics was acerbic, to put it mildly; its practitioners engaged in ad hominem arguments; and there is strong evidence that their work was used by the Strengthening Church Members Committee.

In short, Cassius University scholarship has had an impact. Indeed, its validity is affirmed. This is an accomplishment that Dean Robbers, Doctor Scratch, and other Cassius faculty and staff should find very gratifying. Excellent work, gentlemen and ladies of Cassius! Your hard work has made a mark on the field.

Congratulations Cassius! Due to the painstaking efforts of the faculty, Mopologetics has become part of the Mormon lexicon.

In the summer of 2012 and after being placed on a waiting list for 8 months, I was finally lucky enough get a coveted spot in Doctor Scratch's advanced seminar in Mopologetics. Hands down, it was the best class I've ever attended.

Nobody has had a more distinguished career filled with accolades, awards, prestige and honor than Dr. Scratch. If Cassius is ever able to convince Dr. Scratch to offer his Mopologetic seminar again, do whatever is necessary to enroll.

Great teaching is a mixture of art, science, the ability to keep students’ attention and convey complex information. Dr. Scratch is a master, and his unique talent for occassionaly mixing in a few jokes, props or DCP stories make his teaching style and his seminar even more memorable.

Only two months left until Dr. Scratch unveils his 2017 Top 10 Happenings in Mopologetics!!

Everybody Wang Chung wrote:If Cassius is ever able to convince Dr. Scratch to offer his Mopologetic seminar again, do whatever is necessary to enroll.

Please pray tell what that would be. I've been on that waiting list 8 years come next month.

Porson, Bentley, Wolf, Boeckh, Droysen, Wilamowitz, Wackernagel, Mommsen, Von Harnack, Wellhausen, Brugmann, Nöldecke, Brockelmann, and now Rev. Kishkumen and Dr. Scratch.

Per aspera ad astra, Cassiani!

Symmachus wrote:Porson, Bentley, Wolf, Boeckh, Droysen, Wilamowitz, Wackernagel, Mommsen, Von Harnack, Wellhausen, Brugmann, Nöldecke, Brockelmann, and now Rev. Kishkumen and Dr. Scratch.

Per aspera ad astra, Cassiani!

Dearest consul, your praise is overwhelming. It makes a crusty old Jaredite scholar tear up.

sock puppet wrote:

Everybody Wang Chung wrote:If Cassius is ever able to convince Dr. Scratch to offer his Mopologetic seminar again, do whatever is necessary to enroll.

Please pray tell what that would be. I've been on that waiting list 8 years come next month.

Is there a waiting list for the waiting list?!?

Doctor Scratch is not only a terrifying scholar but a statesman and a diplomat. None have show more kindness and understanding toward their interlocutors than Doctor Scratch.

I listened to the podcast. My takeaway concerning the Old Guard was that in the foreground, you have this self-commissioned "reconnaissance unit" heavily invested in "intellectual swordplay" with critics and that's what draws the eye. But in the background, Mormon apologetics follows the trajectory of apologetics as it develops within other faith communities. Mormon apologetics followed the lead of others a century ago when picking up the spade in defense of the Bible was fashionable, and likewise it follows Today when a spade in hand makes one look foolish at best, and at worst, a fevered literalist.

I agree with the Rev that it's heartening to see another institution draw similar conclusions to ours. In the history of mathematics and the hard sciences, many of the deepest and most exact truths of the universe are revealed independently to researches greatly separated from one another in time and place. Likewise here, Claremont becomes a second witness to an objective cosmological truth -- the transient, bankrupt nature of Mopologetics.

Lemmie wrote:Is there a waiting list for the waiting list?!?

I dare say the Good Doctor will have a free seat for a faculty auditor. Our Honor Code Council is lucky to have you at the helm.

Gadianton wrote:I listened to the podcast. My takeaway concerning the Old Guard was that in the foreground, you have this self-commissioned "reconnaissance unit" heavily invested in "intellectual swordplay" with critics and that's what draws the eye. But in the background, Mormon apologetics follows the trajectory of apologetics as it develops within other faith communities. Mormon apologetics followed the lead of others a century ago when picking up the spade in defense of the Bible was fashionable, and likewise it follows Today when a spade in hand makes one look foolish at best, and at worst, a fevered literalist.

Once again the Dean caps off a discussion with his incisive commentary! We are honored, Dean Robbers. You are correct. Mopologetics was about doing combat, and the good scholars on this podcast acknowledged that the targets could be outsiders or members of the Church. There were a number of other rather pointed criticisms of “classic-FARMS” we should incorporate into our syllabi, but I need to go back through the podcast to pick these gems out.

Can you tell us who the key participants were in the podcast and whether fisticuffs could be heard going on in the background. and to whom did much of the blame or praise go to, and who is now considered to hold the TBM apolgetics chair in the community?


kairos