Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Swiss-American Missionaries For The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints In The Nineteenth Century, Cindy Brightenburg

Swiss American Historical Society Review

In the fa ll of 1888, Gottfried Buehler left his home, wife and small children in Utah for a two-year return to Switzerland. He had been ass igned by his church to serve a miss ion in the land of his birth with the goal to preach the tenets of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the Mormon church, and hereafter referred to as "the church") to the people of Switzerland, baptize them into membership , and encourage them to emigrate to the land of Zion, or the Utah Territory. From the mid- to late-nineteenth …

“Woman, Awake!”: How Lds Doctrine On The Fall And The Practice Of Polygamy Created A Suffragist Culture In Nineteenth-Century Mormonism, Sarah Dunn

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

This paper addresses the question of why Mormon (LDS) women in Utah were so involved in the women’s suffrage movement of the late nineteenth century. This paper explores how two factors in particular—the LDS doctrine concerning Eve and the practice of polygamy—gave those of the LDS community a perspective on women’s role in society that empowered women rather than suppressed them. This empowering perspective on the role of women in society both diverted from the widely-followed protestant traditions of the time and closely paralleled the beliefs and ideologies of the women’s suffragists. With a perspective on women’s role in society …

The Latter-Day Saint Reimaging Of “The Breath Of Life” (Genesis 2:7), Dana M. Pike

Faculty Publications

The creation and flood accounts in Genesis in the Hebrew Bible (the Christian Old Testament) contain variations on a phrase commonly translated “the breath of life.” This phrase additionally occurs in some uniquely Latter-day Saint materials relating to creation. After overviewing and analyzing this phrase and its meaning in the Bible, this paper then examines the occurrences of the phrase “the breath of life” in important early Latter-day Saint texts.1 The purpose of this study is to illustrate and explain how and why many Latter-day Saints have come to often employ the phrase “the breath of life,” transforming its traditional …

History Of The Taipei Temple, John Hilton Iii

Faculty Publications

MANY PRISONERS SUFFERED at the Taihoku Prison in Taipei, Taiwan, during World War II. Yet, less than two decades later, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased a portion of this land and transformed it from a desolate site into a warm and inviting chapel where Latter-day Saints sought to bring their friends. Elder Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated it on October 16, 1966. Fewer than five thousand members resided in Taiwan at the time. In 1984, Hinckley returned to the same plot of land to dedicate a temple adjacent to the chapel. During one of his addresses, he …

The Book Of Mormon As Biblical Interpretation: An Approach To Lds Biblical Studies, Joseph M. Spencer

Studies in the Bible and Antiquity

Recent years have witnessed a growing recognition in the academy that the Book of Mormon deserves closer attention than it has received. Not surprisingly, adherents to the various Mormon faiths have long read the book with some care. But larger numbers of believing and nonbelieving academics have come to recognize that, despite its often didactic style and relative literary artlessness, the Book of Mormon exhibits remarkable sophistication. This is perhaps nowhere truer than in those passages where the volume interacts—whether explicitly or implicitly—with biblical texts (always in or in relation to the King James rendering). Close reading of the Book …

Letter Concerning Story Of Attempted Bombing Of The Laie Temple, James Hallstrom

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

As I promised I am sending you information on the December 7th Incident and the Miracle of all Miracles.

Exhibit A is a copy of the various stories the Church has on file in Salt Lake City. They maintain records on inspirational stories and even "rumors" that come to light. Exhibit B just surfaced last year in Arizona and varies just a little from the earlier version. An Elder Abe Ekins and his wife claim they met the pilot while they were serving as missionaries in Japan in 1985. They are searching through their dairies to find his name. …

Mormon Mortuary Patterns At The Block 49 And Seccombe Lake Cemeteries, Howard S. Irvine

Theses and Dissertations

Death customs perform a socially restorative function among cultures and are a meaningful expression of the value system of any particular culture. Death studies allow the examination of the values considered most significant by the studied culture. This thesis will examine and interpret the material culture recovered at two small cemeteries: Block 49, Utah, and Seccombe Lake, California. One result will show the material manifestation of Mormon religious beliefs in their mortuary practices. The final goal is to suggest that a more thorough examination of a religious sect's beliefs can create a general model of mortuary practices for that religious …

Epideictic Rhetoric And The Formation Of Collective Identity: Nineteenth-Century Mormon Women In Praise Of Polygamy, Robbyn Thompson Scribner

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I will proceed as follows: my first chapter will be a general overview of epideictic rhetoric, focusing on the limitations of how it has traditionally been viewed and understood by theorists. At the end of that chapter I will establish a working definition of epideictic which extends traditional views about how epideictic can function in certain types of writings, focusing on the important role of the speaker in epideictic rhetoric and how it can work in enabling a community to create a collective identity. In the remainder of the thesis, I will analyze two texts in which …

History Of The Lds Southern States Mission, 1875-1898, Heather M. Seferovich

Theses and Dissertations

This in-depth study of late nineteenth-century missionary work in the Southern States Mission examines the encounter of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with the American South. It highlights some of the region's varying conditions affecting missionary work and reports the elders' responses to new and different situations, peoples, and subcultures. Examining missionary work from the elders' viewpoint creates a better understanding of what the missionaries experienced and how they reacted to new situations outside the Mormon "corridor" of settlement in the American West. The statistical analysis of the 1,689 elders in the Mission reveals new details about …

The Mormons In Wilhelmie Germany, 1870-1914: Making A Place For An Unwanted American Religion In A Changing German Society, Michael Mitchell

Theses and Dissertations

Between 1853 and 1914 the kingdom of Prussia and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormons, disagreed over the issue of Mormon missionaries proselyting in Prussia. In 1853 royal magistrates banished all Mormon missionaries from the kingdom for advocating emigration. A new church policy of preaching without seeking for official permission, in addition to an improved relationship between the Mormons in Utah and the United States government after the Manifesto of 1890, led to an increase in missionaries sent to Germany, including Prussia. By 1900 mormon success alarmed the Prussian Protestant clergy and a few Prussian governors …

Mormons And Germany, 1914-1933: A History Of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints In Germany And Its Relationship With The German Governments From World War I To The Rise Of Hitler, Jeffery L. Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

This paper focuses on the Church's struggle in establishing itself in Germany with cultural, social, political and religious problems. The cultural and social problems focus primarily on the interaction between Mormon-American missionaries and leaders who preached Mormonism in a society somewhat different from their own. The political problems concern historical events such as the first world war, the inflation of 1923 in Germany, and the rise of Hitler, while the religious problems focus on the Church's interaction with other faiths who generally opposed it and the struggle of missionaries to establish congregations.

Family Stress And The Role Of The Mormon Bishop's Wife, Marguerite Irene Adams

Theses and Dissertations

A national survey of bishops' wives was conducted to determine whether Reuben Hill's "Roller Coaster" model of family stress following a stressor event should be modified to include a honeymoon period when the precipitating event is viewed positively by the family. The honeymoon period was expected to be within the first year, and too few respondents were in their first year to give statistically significant evidence of such a pattern. Several measures did give non-significant evidence of a honeymoon phase, though.

Other factors found to have an important effect on the stressfulness of the position of bishop's wife were: age …

Anti-Mormon Pamphleteering In Great Britain, 1837-1860, Craig L. Foster

Theses and Dissertations

The introduction of Mormonism into Great Britain was met with both success and resistence. The major form of British resistence to the Latter-day Saints was through the press. From the introduction of the Church into Great Britain in 1837 to 1860, numerous anti-Mormon pamphlets were published to discourage people from associating with what was considered to be a strange American sect.

The major themes of a number of these tracts have been analyzed in order to gain a better understanding of how the Mormons were perceived by the British. Some of the major themes included the evil character of Joseph …

Saints In The Secular City: A History Of The Los Angeles Stake, Chad M. Orton

Theses and Dissertations

Beginning in 1847 and continuing to the turn of the century, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) were encouraged to gather to Utah, where they formed communities seperated from the evils of the world around them. While Mormonism continues to be closely associated with Utah, in 1989 it is a world-wide church with nearly seven million members, most residing outside of Utah, and many of these in major urban areas. Nevertheless, few studies have been made of how the Church has developed outside of Utah.

When the Los Angeles Stake was organized in 1923, it …

The History Of The Early Members Of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints In Preston, Lancashire, England, Paul Floyd Smart

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis outlines the setting for and establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the British Isles. The intent is to identify and analyze who the early converts were that first embraced Mormonism in England, in and around Preston, Lancashire. The study describes the extant records, the social and economic family lifestyle, and religiosity of the Mormon converts from 1837, upon the Church's arrival in Britain, to approximately 1851.

Mormons In Victorian England, Jan G. Harris

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a study of the members of the Manchester Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1838 – 1860. It is a social examination of the converts and reveals that Manchester Mormons were prototypes of many members who joined the Church throughout England.

Most Mormons were young, and were baptized in their twenties or early thirties. Many were single. The Mormon congregation was representative of the working class citizenry of town. Almost all worked with their hands. Living conditions varied. Some members were affluent by working class standards and some barely survived. However, the …

Elder Stephen L. Richards On Peace And War: An Examination Of Elder Richards' Views On The Causes Of War And His Prescription For Peace, Based On The Analytical Framework Contained In Kenneth N. Waltz' Man, The State And War, Gordon John Stirling

Theses and Dissertations

In Man, the State and War, Kenneth N. Waltz claims that for a peace prescription to be valid, it must be based on a proper view of the causes of war. Waltz analyzes the validity of three basic causes of war: man himself, the characteristics of the nation-state, and the international system.

I have examined the views of Elder Stephen L Richards on peace and war in the context of the Waltz framework. Elders Richards believed that the failings of men were the primary causes of war. His prescription for peace was widespread acceptance of the Gospel. He disagreed …

Mormons, Lds Theology And The Nuclear Dilemma, Michael Henry Ballow

Theses and Dissertations

LDS doctrine establishes three courses of action in conflict resolution: a) selective pacifism, b) action as proxy for God as prescribed under the doctrine of continuous revelation and c) absolute pacifism. Of these three, only absolute and selective pacifism are of practical use to the modern member of the LDS Church. Of the remaining two, government political decisions and technological momentum have moved current U.S. defense strategy and weaponry away from a defensive to an offense posture, thus invalidating the case of the selective pacifist and leaving only the absolutist's stand. Despite this development, however, the number of vocal pacifists …

Preserving The Source: Early Microfilming Efforts Of The Genealogical Society Of Utah, 1938-1950, Kahlile B. Mehr

Theses and Dissertations

The Genealogical Society of Utah initiated a worldwide microfilming program at the advent of modern microfilm technology. It succeeded in negotiating for and filming records because of the religious commitment of its leaders and workers, the financial assistance of the LDS Church, the increased concern for records loss as demonstrated by World War II, the maturation of microfilm technology after the war, and the concentration of many religious records in civil archives. Religious commitment enthused the Society's leaders to persist in their efforts in spite of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. The resources of the Church permitted the filming to continue without …

The Development And Evaluation Of A Children's Gospel Principles Course, Lynn R. Applegate

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is the description, defense and critique of a course developed to teach gospel principles to 7- through 9-year-old children. The development process through which the course went, its formative evaluations and summative evaluation are described. The summative evaluation employed the pretest-posttest control group design. Thirty children, ages 7 through 9, were in the evaluation. After the pretest, 15 of the children were taught the 19-lesson course by their parents during a 23-day period. A statistical comparison of the mean pretest-posttest gain scores for the experimental group could significantly more accurately identify examples and non examples of fatih, agency, …

Mormonism And War: An Interpretative Analysis Of Selected Mormon Thought Regarding Seven American Wars, R. Jeffrey Stott

Theses and Dissertations

America has been involved in seven major wars, but Mormonism's involvement in these wars has evaded scholarly attention. This has been unfortunate because, for the most part, individual Mormon leaders have taken very definite stands in relation to these struggles, and accompanying these stands have been very definite goals for the outcome of these wars. This, in turn, has prompted many of these LDS leaders to view the wars from a religious perspective.

This transcending religiosity combined the classical Christian wartime positions of the "just" and "righteous" war into one category. The third position however, pacifism, was also utilized during …

J. Bracken Lee And Utah Public Education, Elwin Lee Reynolds

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the two gubernatorial terms of J. Bracken Lee, Governor of Utah 1948-1956, and the effect he had on education during these years. Lee has been accused by his detractors of being opposed to education. He has been defended by his supporters as being a friend whose only desire was to have education operated on a sound fiscal basis. During his two terms as governor he was almost constantly involved in some dispute with the education people in the state and was frequently on the defensive against anti-education charges.

A History Of The Relief Society Magazine, 1914-1970, Patricia Ann Mann

Theses and Dissertations

In January, 1914, the Relief Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints brought out the first issue of what was to become the Relief Society Magazine. Before this, the women of the Church had been served by the Women's Exponent, founded in 1872 as the second women's publication in the west. During 1914, the Exponent's successor was a monthly guide to the Relief Society's coursework, known as the Bulletin. In January, 1915, it became the Relief Society Magazine.
The magazine became a leader in the Relief Society work as a forum for idea …

An Evaluation Of The Adequacy Of Selected Formal Church Programs In Preparing Male Members To Enter The United States Air Force, James R. Palmer

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Church programs in preparing young Latter-day Saint servicemen to accept and live the gospel of Jesus Christ as determined from the opinions of servicemen and bishops. The teaching programs, counseling, continual Church activity, Church publications, and the preservice and inservice Church orientations were evaluated for their effectiveness in teaching the five objectives: Testimony building; commandment living; continual activity, missionary work, and patriotism.

One hundred eighteen servicemen, who had completed basic training and were attending technical training schools, along with seventy-seven bishops provided the information used in this study. …

Attitudes Concerning Birth Control And Abortion As Related To Lds Religiosity Of Brigham Young University Students, Erlend D. Peterson

Theses and Dissertations

This study was an analysis of the relationship between LDS religiosity of college students and their attitudes concerning birth control and abortion.

The respondents in this research were LDS college students attending Brigham Young University Fall Semester 1970. Goodman and Kruskal's gamma and a difference of means test were used to measure association and difference to determine the statistical significance of the responses as related to religiosity and attitudes concerning birth control and abortion.

The results of the study showed that (1) there was a positive relationship between conservative attitudes toward birth control and abortion and one's degree of measured …

A History Of The Genealogical Society Of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints To 1970, Merrill S. Lofthouse

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a study of the growth and development of the various departments of the Genealogical Society and how they contributed to the function of the total organization. The following was considered with each department: (1) the date of organization, (2) purpose for which organized, (3) methods used to carry out responsibilities, (4) function and interaction with other departments of the organization.

Activities of the Genealogical Society were evaluated on the basis of the following major roles: (1) as an agency for locating researchers, (2) agency to make records available to search, (3) a clearing house for records prior …

The School Of The Prophets: Its Development And Influence In Utah Territory, John R. Patrick

Theses and Dissertations

Four separate and distinct Schools of the Prophets were organized by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Joseph Smith Jr. organized the first school in the spring of 1833, and it functioned periodically until 1837. Brigham Young organized the second school in December 1867, as a part of the University of the State of Deseret. It functioned until August of 1872 when Brigham Young disbanded it because members failed to adhere to its rules. Three months later he reorganized on a limited basis a third school in Salt Lake City. This school existed until the summer of 1874 …

An Analysis Of Byu 1963 Women Graduates' Present Status As Mothers In The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, Phyllis Ann Roundy

Theses and Dissertations

This study was conducted to survey the practices and feelings of a selected group of young mothers concerning: (1) their family life and (2) their activity in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Use Made By Lds Institute Instructors Of Statements And Messages Of The Modern Prophets In Answering Current Issues Of Importance To College Students, Gale J. Brimhall

Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to evaluate the L.D.S. institute instructors use of statements made by leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These leaders have instructed Church school teachers to teach what the prophets have said and not the teachers own ideas or views on doctrine.

The data from this study show the following: (1) Approximately twenty per cent of instructor responses in selecting the stated principles of the Church on a current issue are incorrect; (2) The ability of the instructors to recognize prophet's statements from non-prophet's statements is seventy-three per cent; (3) Over ninty per …

A Study Of The Cultural And Religious Behavior Of The Navaho Indians Which Caused Animosity, Resistance, Or Indifference To The Religious Teachings Of The Latter-Day Saints, James D. Mathews

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the cultural and religious behavior of the Navaho Indians which caused animosity, resistance, or indifference to the religious teachings of the Latter-day Saints.
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for many years, have been in frequent contact with the Navaho Indians. Thousands of Navaho youth have been enrolled in the Indian seminary program of the Church. Hundreds of other students have been involved in the Indian student placement program and the Brigham Young University Indian education program. Furthermore, the Church has contacted much of the population of the …