An unsubmitted draft of a chapter from my dissertation that discusses the creation, definition, and study of the concept of religion and why the concept has no analytical value to my dissertation.

This paper argues that the practice of description is frequently understood as definition, which is too often precisely prescription. It contends that reduction to necessary and sufficient features is alien to the natural development and use of conceptual categories like religion, and so an alternative approach to description is recommended.

This thesis has two primary goals: (1) to analyze the countours and extent of the generic category of deity in the Hebrew Bible, and (2) propose a semantic base for the term. It begins with a description of the fields associated with cognitive theory, and particularly cognitive linguistics. Chapter 2 examines the cognitive origins of notions of…[Read more]

This paper examines the conceptualization of mercy, justice, and the law in the prophetic literature’s deployment of the “prophetic critique” and in its deployment by Jesus in the Gospels.

This paper demonstrates that the phrase “after all we can do” (2 Nephi 25:23) was in wide circulation in the early nineteenth century, including in the context of discussions about grace, and was always used to mean “despite all we can do.”

This chapter interrogates the conceptualization and creation of divine bodies in the Hebrew Bible through the lens of the cognitive science of religion.

The publication of Thomas A. Wayment’s The New Testament: A Translation for Latter-day Saints is a significant event that occasions not only a close examination of his work but also a discussion of how it fits into the complex relationship The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has long shared with Bible translation.

Psalm 82 has long resisted a consensus regarding its genre. While some scholars have noted that the psalm’s language overlaps with that of the complaint genre, several features of the psalm appear to complicate that reading. As a result, the framework of the divine council is frequently given interpretive priority, which has resulted in a v…[Read more]