When Souls Had Wings: Pre-Mortal Existence In Western Thought,
2011
Brigham Young University
When Souls Had Wings: Pre-Mortal Existence In Western Thought, Jesse D. Hurlbut, James L. Siebach, David B. Paxman, Dana M. Pike, Terryl L. Givens
BYU Studies
Four experts in different branches of study review Terryl L. Givens's expansive new book When Souls Had Wings: Pre-mortal Existence in Western Thought.
Joseph Smith Encounters Calvinism,
2011
Brigham Young University
Joseph Smith Encounters Calvinism, Robert L. Millet
BYU Studies
In seventeenth-century Europe, followers of John Calvin debated with followers of Jacob Arminius about five main doctrinal points: the total depravity of man, God's unconditional election of certain people, the limited nature of the Atonement, the irresistibility of God's grace, and the perseverance of the Saints. This article gives a brief account of that controversy and then compares the teachings of Joseph Smith and Mormonism on these same five points of doctrine.
Coming To Terms: The Challenge Of Creating Christian Vocabulary In A Non-Christian Land,
2011
Brigham Young University
Coming To Terms: The Challenge Of Creating Christian Vocabulary In A Non-Christian Land, Van C. Gessel
BYU Studies
Because words, in any language, are not actual concrete objects but simply "sounds," "symbols," or "signifiers" that at best can only be a shadowy approximation of reality and truth, we must regard language as one of the slipperiest of the slippery treasures of mortality. If language itself produces, at best, a shadowy approximation of reality and truth, then translating that shadowy approximation from one language to another significantly compounds the slipperiness. The difficulty increases when translating Christian terms into a historically non-Christian language and culture such as Japanese. Thus, as Christian translators have attempted to borrow words from other languages …
Full Issue,
2011
Brigham Young University
Religious Metaphor And Cross-Cultural Communication: Transforming National And International Identities,
2011
Brigham Young University
Religious Metaphor And Cross-Cultural Communication: Transforming National And International Identities, Joseph E. Richardson
BYU Studies
The challenges of intercultural communication multiply in religious discourse, with its objective of translating abstract ideas into cultures and languages with sufficient power to transform individual, ethnic, and regional identities and to build cohesive communities of faith. Metaphor plays a primary role in this transformative communication. A powerful tool to abbreviate and facilitate communication, metaphor enables individuals to transmit abstract ideas quickly, efficiently, and memorably. Metaphor is not just a tool for efficient communication; it also guides thought, extends ideas, and influences behavior. Daily language is full of metaphor, which affects our beliefs and faith and, consequently, our actions. As …
The Spirit And The Intellect: Lessons In Humility,
2011
Brigham Young University
The Spirit And The Intellect: Lessons In Humility, Duane Boyce
BYU Studies
Some individuals have great confidence in their knowledge of both intellectual and spiritual things. Boyce does not share this confidence. "I have come to believe, after many a false start," he admits, "that if I am honest and thorough in my approach to the gospel, and if I am honest and thorough in my approach to intellectual disciplines, there resides in each the imperative for a profound sense of humility. I discover in both of them that what we don't know far outstrips what we do." He then goes on to illustrate the limits of human knowledge by presenting three …
Now You See It, Now You Don't: Biblical Perspectives On The Relationship Between Magic And Religion,
2011
Brigham Young University
Now You See It, Now You Don't: Biblical Perspectives On The Relationship Between Magic And Religion, Shawna Dolansky, David A. Allred
BYU Studies
Defining terms is a foundational task in academic studies, and a clear example of its importance is in the ongoing debates on the relationship between magic and religion. Because of the various ways in which magic has been defined over time and because of the negative connotations that can accompany some definitions, explorations of magic and religion are rife with misunderstanding and ethnocentrism, most famously dating back to the milieu of cultural evolution that characterized nineteenth-century anthropology, especially in the works of Edward B. Taylor and James G. Frazer. However, questions about the relationship between magic and religion go back …
Quotidiana,
2011
Brigham Young University
Quotidiana, Eric D'Evegnee, Patrick Madden
BYU Studies
Some LDS readers have an intriguing tendency to venerate obviously scholarly research while turning up their noses at what they consider less "academic" work. These readers are missing out on a potentially impactful genre. Eugene England wrote, "It is the personal essay that seems to me to have the greatest potential for making a uniquely valuable Mormon contribution both to Mormon cultural and religious life and to that of others." If that notion is true, reading works like Pat Madden's collection of personal essays, Quotidiana, should be added to our academic diet to refine and broaden the value we place …
Confessing History: Explorations In Christian Faith And The Historian's Perspective,
2011
Brigham Young University
Confessing History: Explorations In Christian Faith And The Historian's Perspective, Rachel Cope, John Fea, Jay Green, Eric Miller
BYU Studies
George Marsden's 1994 book The Soul of the American University ended rather unusually for an academic work--this well-respected historian suggested that religious faith should have a place in the academy. Such a bold assertion sparked a number of heated discussions within and without the intellectual world. Three years later, Marsden responded again to his critics by producing a volume that explored this topic, which he aptly titled The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship. As a result of this book, additional conversations ensued in which Christian and non-Christian scholars grappled with Marsden's proposition. More recently, the contributors to the edited volume …
"Delivered By The Power Of God": Nephi's Vision Of America's Birth,
2011
Brigham Young University - Utah
"Delivered By The Power Of God": Nephi's Vision Of America's Birth, Kenneth L. Alford Ph.D.
Faculty Publications
Chapter 14 of the 2011 BYU Sperry Symposium volume, "'Delivered by the Power of God:' Nephi's Vision of America's Birth" by Dr. Kenneth L. Alford discusses evidence of God's hand andintervention in the American Revolutionary War. This essay specifically looks at 1 Nephi 13, Washington and the founding fathers, wartime weather, and the West Point chain.
Jon Jonsson: Icelandic Mormon Poet And Translator,
2011
Individual
Jon Jonsson: Icelandic Mormon Poet And Translator, Fred E. Woods, Kári Bjarnason
Faculty Publications
Jon Jonsson (Jón Jónsson), a catalytic Icelandic convert to Mormonism, was a gifted poet and translator whose literary work focused on the theme of salvation. Perhaps his most valuable contribution to Mormon history is that he is the first known person to translate a portion of the Book of Moron into Icelandic. He completed a translation of the First Book of Nephi in 1881.
Mormon Contributions To Young Adult Literature,
2011
Brigham Young University
Mormon Contributions To Young Adult Literature, Toni Pilcher
Student Works
Mormon authors are making big splashes in the world of young adult (YA) literature, a relatively young genre that is targeted at readers from age 12 to age 18. Since 1967, when the American Library Association officially recognized YA literature as separate from children's books, writers and publishers have been trying to define the genre. It is, in a sense, coming of age. Generally, to be considered YA, a book has to have a teenage protagonist in situations with which a teenage reader can identify. Like literature for adults, there are a few limitations to subject and theme, but unlike …
Register Of The Camp Floyd Field School Records,
2011
Brigham Young University - Provo
Register Of The Camp Floyd Field School Records, J. Michael Hunter
Faculty Publications
The Brigham Young University Field School of Archaeology excavated part of Camp Floyd during the 1980s. College credit was offered to both university and high school students for participating in the field work. This Register contains an inventory of 4 boxes of materials from 1982 to 1992, including field school correspondence, field notes, laboratory notes, historical research notes, photos, copy orders, flyers, student information, budgets, artifact records, newspapers articles, journal articles, historical records such as enlistments, deaths, and supply inventories. The materials inventoried are housed in the Camp Floyd State Park Museum at Camp Floyd Stagecoach Inn State Park, 18035 …
Understanding The Book Of Mormon: A Reader's Guide,
2011
Brigham Young University
Understanding The Book Of Mormon: A Reader's Guide, Steven C. Walker, Grant Hardy
BYU Studies
Understanding the Book of Mormon may be the book for a lot of us. As often as we Latter-day Saints have read the Book of Mormon, we may yet read it better, read it with more understanding, if we were to read it with the benefit of the perceptive perspective that Hardy opens up for us with this volume. For all our Book of Mormon enthusiasms and even our critically careful analyses, we may have sometimes shortchanged ourselves in our readings in the same way Oliver Cowdery did in his translating: "Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that …
The Journey Of The James G. Willie Handcart Company,
2011
Brigham Young University
The Journey Of The James G. Willie Handcart Company, Gary D. Long, Howard A. Christy
BYU Studies
Author Gary D. Long is uniquely equipped to produce this quality map study of the tragic experience of the Willie Handcart Company as it struggled through Wyoming in October and November 1856. During a long career with the Bureau of Land Management in Wyoming, he has made an extensive study of the famed Oregon and Mormon Trails. Additionally, he has exhaustively examined the Willie experience to include walking over the full length of the Company's route through Wyoming and probing all extant written material (books, articles, journals, church records, and individual reminiscences), with particular emphasis on the day-to-day entries found …
Godbodied: The Matter Of The Latter-Day Saints,
2011
Brigham Young University
Godbodied: The Matter Of The Latter-Day Saints, Stephen H. Webb
BYU Studies
Christian theologian Stephen H. Webb is the author of Jesus Christ, Eternal God (Oxford University Press, 2012). This article, excerpted from that book, gives readers Webb's unique view of Mormonism. A professor of religion and philosophy at Wabash College in Indiana, Webb researched an obscure heretical position on the nature of Jesus Christ and soon encountered Joseph Smith's doctrine that God has a body. Webb writes that Mormons reject the Nicene Creed and Augustine's Platonization of Christianity. They affirm the eternal nature of matter and claim that Jesus and humans are members of one family because they are made of …
Appetite,
2011
Brigham Young University
"Myself . . . I Consecrate To The God Of Heaven": Twenty Affidavits Of Consecration In Nauvoo, June–July 1842,
2011
Brigham Young University
"Myself . . . I Consecrate To The God Of Heaven": Twenty Affidavits Of Consecration In Nauvoo, June–July 1842, Sherilyn Farnes, Mitchell K. Schaefer
BYU Studies
Early in the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Joseph Smith taught the Saints that the Lord had revealed a law of consecration, in which members would consecrate all their time, talents, and possessions to the Church and its purposes. It has been commonly believed that the law of consecration was not practiced in Nauvoo, where the Church was headquartered from 1839 to 1846. But the recent discovery of twenty affidavits of consecration, handwritten in the summer of 1842 by Latter-day Saints determined to follow an apostolic invitation to consecrate themselves and property to the Church, …
The King James Bible In America: Pilgrim, Prophet, President, Preacher,
2011
Brigham Young University
The King James Bible In America: Pilgrim, Prophet, President, Preacher, John S. Tanner
BYU Studies
John S. Tanner, BYU academic vice president (2004-2011), says the influence the King James Bible on American culture and history is like the air we breathe. This paper, given in 2011 at Oxford University, illustrates this influence by examining the central role the King James Bible played in the lives of a Pilgrim, John Winthrop; a prophet, Joseph Smith; a president, Abraham Lincoln; and a preacher, Martin Luther King Jr. Puritan leader John Winthrop's famous 1630 speech compared the Pilgrims bound for the Massachusetts Bay Colony to ancient Israel, as both sought a covenant with God in a promised land. …
Full Issue,
2011
Brigham Young University
