Mormon Studies Commons^™

Clark Memorandum: Fall 2017, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Byu Law School Alumni Association, J. Reuben Clark Law Society

The Clark Memorandum

• Ascending the Mountain: A Story of the People of the Great Hill (Michalyn Steele)
• Unlocking Potential: How a Law Degree Amplifies Your Ability to Bless the World (Jane Mitchell)
• The EU Apple Case: Who Has a Dog in the Fight? (J. Clifton Fleming, Jr.)

Review Of Council Of Fifty, Minutes, March 1844–1846, Benjamin E. Park

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

The Council of Fifty, a clandestine organization founded by Joseph Smith in the final months of his life, has remained one of the most controversial episodes in LDS history. Created during Smith’s 1844 presidential run and while internal and external tensions in Nauvoo were reaching a boiling point, the council embodied both the Church’s growing anxiety and its desperate attempts to find some path to resolution. And because the written records of the council have been restricted from scholars since their origin, the many historians who have tried to reconstruct these meetings were forced to do the equivalent of seeing …

End Matter

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Byu–Idaho Pathway: A Gateway To Global Church Education, Benjamin C. Peterson

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

With the announcement of BYU–Pathway Worldwide on 7 February 2 017, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf identified the occasion as a “very special day for the Church Educational System (CES), and a day of hope and joy for many of our young people worldwide who are seeking to educate themselves and to prepare for successful livelihood.” This new higher education online organization continues to revolutionize the way in which the Church provides opportunities of higher education to an increasing number of individuals around the world. At the heart of BYU–Pathway Worldwide is the BYU–Idaho Pathway program that has for the last …

Critical Thinking In Religious Education, Shayne Anderson

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

A common argument in an increasingly secular world today is that religion poses a threat to world peace and human well-being. Concerning the field of religious education, Andrew Davis, an honorary research fellow at Durham University, argues that religious adherents tend to treat others who do not agree with them with disrespect and hostility and states that efforts to persuade them to behave otherwise would be “profoundly difficult to realize.” Consequently, he believes that religious education should consist only of a moderate form of pluralism. Religious education classes, in his view, should not make claims of one religion having exclusive …

Insights From The Ces Commissioner, Kim B. Clark, Barbara Morgan Gardner

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

This article is a four-part compilation of interviews with Commissioner of the Church Educational System, Elder Kim B. Clark, that Barbara Morgan Gardner performed from September 2015 to May 2017. In September of 2015, Elder Clark was just beginning his tenure as Commissioner of the Church Educational System. Therefore, the first interview focuses on his calling, experience, and expectations. In the second interview, held in August of 2016, nearly a year later, Elder Clark reflects on his first full year of service, new experiences, innovations, and student struggles. The third interview, conducted in February of 2017, was performed a couple …

Elevate Learning Experiences In Institute: A Global Perspective, Po Nien Chou

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Church leaders have noted the challenges facing young adults today and the need to raise the bar and prepare them better to meet these challenges. In May 2014, Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles explained, “The world today is more challenging than it was [years ago]. . . . What we need now is the greatest generation of young adults in the history of the Church.” Elder Ballard continued, “We need vibrant, thinking, passionate young adults who know how to listen and respond to the whispering of the Holy Spirit. . . . It’s time …

Seminary And Institute Recognition Pins, Dennis A. Wright, Alan L. Morrell

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

The history of the Church is recorded not only in the words and events o f the past but also in the artifacts left behind by previous generations. Artifacts serve as tangible reminders of our memories and add a sense of reality to our history. The Church History Museum seeks to collect, preserve, and interpret the artifacts that illustrate the history of the Church. As windows to our past, artifacts enhance personal insight and understanding that in turn enlighten our appreciation of our history. The purpose of this discussion is to examine the historical context of recognition jewelry in the …

Review Of Mormons In The Piazza: History Of The Latter-Day Saints In Italy, Richard N. Holzapfel

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Mormons in the Piazza: History of the Latter-day Saints in Italy is a tour de force and has immediately become a model for future histories written about Latter-day Saints living, working, serving, and struggling to find a place in nations outside the United States.

Understanding The House Of The Lord: A Study Of Holy Places In Scripture, Brian K. Ray

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Symbolism is one of the teaching methods frequently employed by our Heavenly Father and his Son, Jesus Christ—types and images to help the finite, mortal mind comprehend eternal doctrines and principles. The apocryphal Gospel of Philip emphasizes this truth: “Truth did not come into the world naked, but she came clothed in types and images. One cannot receive the truth in any other way.” Through the use of symbols, the Lord reveals meaning and understanding to intangible concepts that would otherwise remain ethereal and intangible.

Stopping The Stigma: Lessons From Early Returned Missionaries, Kristine J. Doty-Yells

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

In 2002, my world changed when my oldest son returned home from his mission after only a few months. I was stunned and bewildered, and I had no idea what I should do. This is not something I knew how to prepare for. The idea of an early return never occurred to me. My son seemed to do just fine in his adjustment; I was the one who struggled with grief and loss. I mourned the spiritual experiences he would not have and the growth he would not gain. What made it worse was that I knew only one other …

Helping Female Students Rise To Their Spiritual Privileges, Barbara Morgan Gardner

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Recently, I asked my class of fifty Doctrine and Covenants students if they felt confident with their knowledge of the doctrines, principles, and practices associated with the priesthood. Apparently all did! I was so happy at that moment thinking that we would save several hours of class time on the topic. In the silence of my office following class, however, I began to wonder how it was that they knew everything about the priesthood when I myself, and even Church leaders, were struggling to understand and explain some of the fundamentals. During the next class, therefore, I had them answer …

Full Issue

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

“The Calamity That Should Come”, Richard E. Bennett

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Speaking at Brigham Young University in 1981, Ezra Taft Benson, then President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, remarked as follows:

I realize this is an unpleasant topic on which to dwell. I take no delight in its portrayal, nor do I look forward to the day when calamities shall come with increasing number upon humanity. But these words are not my own; the Lord has spoken them. Knowing what we know as his servants, can we hesitate to raise a warning voice to all who will listen that they may be prepared for the days ahead? Silence in …

The Authority Of Example: Emulation As The Path To Theosis, Matthew Scott Stenson

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Since at least Plato and the patristic fathers, those interested in the things of God have expounded the doctrine of deification, or theosis. Although doctrines differ widely, each system admits to one degree or another what Wynand Vladimir de Beer has recently called “divine-human co-operation (synergeia).” For Plato, the back-and-forth of Socratic dialectic was a way for the rational part of man to ascend to God, or the Good. Augustine couched his anthropology of the soul’s ascent in biblical terms. In his view, founded on Proverbs 1:7, one unites (or reunites) with God by means of …

“ America Reads” And The Book Of Mormon, D. Todd Christofferson

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Between 1828 and 1831, the American Bible Society launched an aggressive campaign to put a copy of the Old and New Testament in every American home. During those three years, over 500,000 copies of “the Good Book” were printed and distributed across the country, illustrating just how much Protestant Americans considered themselves to be a God-fearing and Bible-believing people. At the same time of the American Bible Society’s ambitious initiative, a young man named Joseph Smith from upstate New York was translating and printing an additional sacred book of scripture, eventually published as the Book of Mormon.

Front Matter

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Review Of An Experiment On The Word, Nicholas J. Frederick

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

In this remarkable little volume, a small group of Mormon scholars who form what they call the “Mormon Theology Seminar” perform an experiment on the Book of Mormon. They ask two questions: First, what would happen if the Book of Mormon were read theologically, instead of historically or doctrinally? Second, what would happen if this theological reading were done in a collaborative setting? Fittingly, they selected Alma 32 as the text to be experimented on, with the six essays in this small work (about 100 pages) as the result. The contributors, drawing upon backgrounds in philosophy, literature, biblical studies, and …

Full Issue

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.