Interpreter Drops a Thanksgiving Bomb on Kofford Books

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Doctor Scratch
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Interpreter Drops a Thanksgiving Bomb on Kofford Books

Post by Doctor Scratch »

Happy Black Friday, friend and colleagues! I hope you all enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday and got your fill of turkeys and desserts. As you may be aware, Thanksgiving has a somewhat peculiar status when it come to the Mopologists: simply put, the Mopologists usually do rotten things. This year, in keeping with tradition, was no different. Dr. Peterson led off his holiday posting with this:
I hesitated just a bit before deciding to call your attention to a new piece that has appeared on the blog of the Interpreter Foundation, where it will remain for the next several weeks. Today is an important holiday here in the United States, and I don’t want to mar or distract from the spirit of the day, which I hope will be a wonderful one for all who observe it. But this item has been the subject of pre-publication controversy in some circles, so that I’ve decided to go ahead with mentioning it:
How long do you suppose he actually “hesitated”? Half a second? And why not wait a day so as to avoid “marring” the holiday? Well, we can speculate all day, but the fact remains that Peterson and Mormon Interpreter opted to post their “review” of Kofford Brooks’s Method Infinite on Thanksgiving Day! Classy move, guys. You can check out the “review” here:

https://interpreterfoundation.org/an-im ... -infinite/

Notice that the Editor’s Note explains that this is *not even the real review*! Well, why not wait for the final, copy edited, fact-checked (hahaha) version? This seems pretty obviously to be a slam on Kofford Books and Loyd Erickson, who publicly complained after Bradshaw apparently used his advanced review copy of the book to write his *own* book on the same topic. So, this is about “scooping” Kofford and firing yet another shot across the bow, I suppose. And to Bradshaw’s credit, he is at least attempting to identify “what’s good”—one out of three’s not bad, eh?

In any case, who wants to place bets on how the final version of Bradshaw’s review will change? And how much of those changes will be the result of things that are said on this board?
"If, while hoping that everybody else will be honest and so forth, I can personally prosper through unethical and immoral acts without being detected and without risk, why should I not?." --Daniel Peterson, 6/4/14
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Re: Interpreter Drops a Thanksgiving Bomb on Kofford Books

Post by Informant »

Anyone else think Bradshaw looks just like Patrick Warburton?
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Re: Interpreter Drops a Thanksgiving Bomb on Kofford Books

Post by consiglieri »

Thank you for bringing this Thanksgiving treat to our attention, good Doctor!

I suggest the reason for the review’s quick (couldn’t wait till one day after Thanksgiving) publication in less-than-final form is because they rushed this review to press in order to tamp down rumors that Bradshaw’s asking for an advance copy of the Method Infinite manuscript in order to write a review was something other than a Machiavellian method of writing an entire book in response that could come out at the same time.

Professor Peterson thinks this dog and pony show is completely occluded from the casual observer much as a toddler thinks she cannot be seen by holding her hands in front of her face.
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Re: Interpreter Drops a Thanksgiving Bomb on Kofford Books

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Meh. It is about what one would expect. It is pleasantly surprising inasmuch as Bradshaw is not obviously behaving like a jerk, and he actually doles out some praise for the book, which is much more than one would often get out of Hamblin, Midgley, or Peterson. When they feared a book, they made sure not to say practically anything positive about it. Bradshaw is to be commended for giving at least some of the praise due. Of course, he also admits, and accurately, that the authors of the book know a heckuvalot more about Freemasonry than he does.

And this leads to him making the usual conceptual errors that he could not see because he incapable or, perhaps, afraid. Like most LDS apologists who approach this topic, and much like Bushman when dealing with the topic of magic in the past, Bradshaw erects artificial barriers between Masonry and Christianity. Since most of his readers carry the same inaccurate views, he can get away with this unnoticed by the uninformed and unwary. But esoteric Christianity and Freemasonry overlap very much, and this of course is why the contradictions and lapses that Bradshaw sees in the book exist mostly in his mind or his apologetic pose. Yes, Christian and Masonic themes overlap in early Mormonism, and it can be difficult to tell at times which wellspring Smith is drawing from. Bradshaw seems to exploit the overlap to erase Masonic interpretations as much as he can. If you recognize that Masonry abounded in esoteric Judeo-Christian themes and stories, then some of Bradshaw’s sifting is rendered pointless. People understand the Christian influences on Joseph Smith, so Bruno et alii did not need to write THAT book. They wrote one with the Masonic interpretation because that had not been done quite as well as this one does the job.

Bradshaw, I guess, insists that the Masonic exists only where a Christian option is absent? What sense does that make in early nineteenth century Freemasonry?

This part really had me chuckling.
For example, William J. Hamblin, Daniel C. Peterson, and George L. Mitton have noted that:[51]
the differences between the two stories are far greater than the alleged similarities: Enoch is not mentioned in the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. The main Enochian text is inscribed on a stone pillar[52][—an idea that the Masons derived and elaborated from Jewish and early Christian traditions[53]], not on golden plates. The gold plate in the Enoch story was a single inscriptional plate, not a book; it was triangular rather than rectangular; and it contained the ineffable name of God, which plays no role in the Book of Mormon story.[54] … Joseph’s golden plates were in a small stone box, while Enoch built a huge underground temple complex with “nine arches” and a huge “door of stone.”[55] And whereas the Book of Mormon is composed of history and sermons, Enoch’s pillar contains “the principles of the liberal arts, particularly of masonry.”[56]
That is a ludicrous treatment of the parallels between the two stories. Indeed, these gentlemen, and I suppose Bradshaw, as he agrees with them, do not think parallels of this kind are worthwhile unless they come from ancient Mesoamerica or some such. If it comes from Freemasonry nothing less than identical items have to be found in both passages in order for there to be any evidence of influence. Reading this I really have to wonder what Bradshaw thinks of some of Don Bradley’s other ideas. After all, the thing that ties together the Book of Mormon and the Enoch story is the TEMPLE!!!

D’oh!

Oh, dear me. It turns out that Joseph Smith’s Book of Mormon and the Masonic Enoch legend are very much about finding ancient relics related to the TEMPLE.

So sad when these guys trip over themselves in rejecting something cool and inspiring right in front of their faces because of their absolute insistence that Joseph Smith must stay in the tidy box of religion as these apologists and their timorous readers conceive of it.

I am sure Bradshaw is an amazingly smart fellow and all, and it is therefore all the more unfortunate that he can’t see how he contradicts himself all over the place in his review. Well, as you said, Doctor Scratch, maybe he will fix the glaring errors before the final version. But, seriously, talking up Don Bradley on the initiatic nature of the First Vision as though this were somehow totally at odds with a Masonic reading. That is quite an amazing boner.
Last edited by Kishkumen on Sat Nov 26, 2022 3:25 am, edited 2 times in total.
“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about the answers.”~Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
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Re: Interpreter Drops a Thanksgiving Bomb on Kofford Books

Post by Kishkumen »

consiglieri wrote:
Sat Nov 26, 2022 2:57 am
Thank you for bringing this Thanksgiving treat to our attention, good Doctor!

I suggest the reason for the review’s quick (couldn’t wait till one day after Thanksgiving) publication in less-than-final form is because they rushed this review to press in order to tamp down rumors that Bradshaw’s asking for an advance copy of the Method Infinite manuscript in order to write a review was something other than a Machiavellian method of writing an entire book in response that could come out at the same time.

Professor Peterson thinks this dog and pony show is completely occluded from the casual observer much as a toddler thinks she cannot be seen by holding her hands in front of her face.
Yes, I recall how Cheryl Bruno had absolutely no problem with the revelation that Bradshaw’s book was timed to come out at almost the same time as hers. AHEM. :roll:
“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about the answers.”~Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
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Re: Interpreter Drops a Thanksgiving Bomb on Kofford Books

Post by Philo Sofee »

We will talk about it on Sunday as well on the show. On the phone the other day Nick told me Bradshaw had alerted them both to the review..l. It will be interesting to say the least. The ole soap opera continues down merry lane....
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Re: Interpreter Drops a Thanksgiving Bomb on Kofford Books

Post by Doctor Scratch »

Philo Sofee wrote:
Sat Nov 26, 2022 3:32 am
We will talk about it on Sunday as well on the show. On the phone the other day Nick told me Bradshaw had alerted them both to the review..l. It will be interesting to say the least. The ole soap opera continues down merry lane....
“Alerted them?” What did he say, I wonder? “Oh, hey: we’re going to publish an unfinished version of the review on Thanksgiving!” Or maybe: “Apologies in advance, but Dan Peterson hates Loyd and wants to get revenge on him and so he insisted that we publish this early”? Did Bradshaw apologize for stealing their material?
"If, while hoping that everybody else will be honest and so forth, I can personally prosper through unethical and immoral acts without being detected and without risk, why should I not?." --Daniel Peterson, 6/4/14
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Re: Interpreter Drops a Thanksgiving Bomb on Kofford Books

Post by Informant »

You know those old commercials…

“Avoid the Loyd.”
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Re: Interpreter Drops a Thanksgiving Bomb on Kofford Books

Post by drumdude »

SeN wrote:this item has been the subject of pre-publication controversy in some circles, so that I’ve decided to go ahead with mentioning it:
Interpreter wrote:a fair amount of discussion has recently resulted. It was, therefore, felt that interested parties might benefit from this early version of the review being posted on the blog

Are we the circles/interested parties?
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Re: Interpreter Drops a Thanksgiving Bomb on Kofford Books

Post by Marcus »

A section from the review, that seems to explain why the early publication:
By way of disclaimer, I should mention that I have recently written a book entitled Freemasonry and the Origins of Latter-Day Saint Temple Ordinances,[5] an expansion of a 2015 journal article[6] I began to work on in the last half of 2021.[7] After receiving a copy of Method Infinite earlier this year that was kindly provided by Loyd Ericson on behalf of Greg Kofford Books, I decided that in addition to writing a detailed review of Method Infinite, it would be relatively easy to turn my research on Freemasonry and the temple into a book—expecting that I would be able to finish both the book and the review before beginning a lengthy period of travel beginning at the end of July. Wanting to make sure that I represented both the subject matter and the views of the authors of Method Infinite accurately and fairly, I contacted Cheryl Bruno and Nicholas S. Literski and let them know about both efforts. During the initial writing of the book, they kindly gave significant feedback on the chapters and provided helpful perspectives and answers to questions I had along the way. They also generously granted permission to publish quotations from their book and excerpts from their private communications with me. Earlier conversations with Joe Steve Swick III during the writing of the previous journal article had also been very helpful and supportive. I am grateful for the resultant friendly dialogue with these three scholars throughout the writing process—which, disappointingly, in the case of the review, lasted much longer than I had originally planned. As will be seen in this lengthy review, Method Infinite addresses an impressive breadth of subjects, and in most cases I had to start my research and writing about these many topics from scratch. As the authors had done previously with the book, they graciously provided feedback on an early draft of this review and have also had an opportunity to read and correct errors in a near-final version. I appreciate not only the scholarship of these authors but also their examples of how dialogue on differences need not jeopardize mutual respect and collegiality. I am also grateful for the efforts of other unnamed friends who have contributed their perspectives to the present essay.
I am curious as to whether the above section will survive, in light of this disclaimer:
[Editor’s Note: This is a pre-publication copy of a review that will, after source checking, copy editing, and typesetting, appear in the pages of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. At that time, this version will be removed and this page will redirect to the version published in the Journal.
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